The Tactile Carpet Factory is situated on Yvette and Braam’s farm in the Biggarsberg Mountain Range. Local Zulu people are employed to handcraft the beautiful rugs. The method used is the time-honoured Middle Eastern (Turkish) technique called the Ghiordes Knot.
Top quality pure new wool is hand-dyed and hand-spun into skeens and only then is ready for knotting. The warp is hung and stretched by hand on the looms, and after each of the knots, a weft thread is woven through and beaten down resulting in a dense deep pile weighing approximately 7kg’s per square meter.
It takes an experienced knotter about two weeks to knot a square meter; the durability of the dense pile has been conclusively demonstrated where these carpets have been exposed to heavy traffic in homes and offices.
The expertise in making one-off designs to order in any size and colour meets the growing demand from interior designers and architects. There is also a wide variety of distinguished and proven tactile designs to choose from – both Classic and Modern. The Tactile Company is actively involved in rural social upliftment – they develop skills and provide employment to empower the local community.
