Our master artisan — the hands that touch every rug.
Our master artisan is the master rug artisan of the Cohen family. Every rug brought into our workshop is inspected by our master artisan personally, by hand, before any work begins. Our master artisan writes the wash plan, supervises the wash floor, performs hand-restoration on the bench, and signs off on every rug before it is returned to your home. 39 years of experience, with thousands of antique oriental, Persian, and silk rugs hand-washed across the Northeast.
A decade of training, by hand.
Our master artisan trained in the craft before opening the first Cohen family workshop. The training covered every layer of the craft — reading fibers and foundations by hand, identifying vegetable dyes by colour and behaviour, hand-washing antique Persians of every great workshop, and restoring foundations and pile that had been weakened by water, moths, or time.
Today our master artisan supervises every rug that passes through any of our five locations. The same hand that reads your rug on arrival is the hand that hand-washes it, restores it where needed, and signs off on its return. We do not outsource the work, and we do not delegate the inspection.
Six things our master artisan reads before any wash.
Every rug is inspected by hand on arrival. The wash plan is written from what the rug shows us — never a template, never a guess.
Fiber
Wool grade and origin — mountain wool from Iran, Anatolia, Tibet, or modern New Zealand. Silk filaments read under hand and light. Cotton, linen, and jute weft identified at the edge.
Foundation
Warp count, weft pattern, knot density, and structural integrity read by hand. Hand-knotted Senneh or Ghiordes knots identified. Weak warps flagged for foundation repair before the wash.
Dyes
Vegetable, synthetic, or mixed. Madder, indigo, walnut hull, pomegranate skin, and cochineal identified by colour and behaviour. Every colour dye-tested for bleed risk before water touches the rug.
Prior repairs
Earlier restorations read for quality. Poor reweaves, machine-stitched fringe replacements, and improper colour matches are noted and either preserved or reworked, depending on the rug.
Structural damage
Moth larvae, dry rot, water damage, sun-fade, dye bleed from prior washes, and pet damage all logged. Each receives a different treatment in the wash plan.
Restoration approach
Reweaving, fringe binding, selvedge repair, colour restoration, or none of the above. The master artisan writes the plan, signs off on it, and supervises every stage in the workshop.
The slow craft, on the bench.
Hand-restoration is the slowest part of the craft. Foundation repair, reweaving, fringe binding, selvedge restoration, and colour restoration are all performed by our master artisan and the family artisans on our restoration bench, in our workshop, by hand.
For antique pieces the yarn is colour-matched and tension-matched to the original weave so the repair disappears into the rug. We re-knot Senneh and Ghiordes knots by hand, we colour-match dye lots by eye, and we never use a machine on a piece that was woven on a loom.
Restoration is never rushed. Most pieces are on the bench for three to six weeks. Every rug gets the time it needs — nothing leaves the workshop until our master artisan signs off on it.
Questions, honestly answered.
What clients ask us before they hand over a rug, and how we answer.
Who personally inspects my rug at the workshop?
What does the master artisan do during the wash?
How long has the master artisan trained in this craft?
Does the master artisan do the restoration work personally?
How does the master artisan handle vegetable-dyed antiques?
Who personally inspects my rug at the workshop?
What does the master artisan do during the wash?
How long has the master artisan trained in this craft?
Does the master artisan do the restoration work personally?
How does the master artisan handle vegetable-dyed antiques?
More from Horizon.
Other locations, every service we offer, and the rest of our story: a few directions to explore.
Bring us the rug.
Tell us about the piece — antique oriental, Persian, silk, fine wool, restoration. Our master artisan will personally inspect your rug on arrival. Complimentary pickup across Manhattan, the Hamptons, Westchester County, Greenwich, and Stamford.
By hand · By the Cohen family · By appointment