India exports over $1.3 billion worth of handmade carpets annually. Obeetee, the country’s largest carpet maker, works with over 25,000 independent weavers. Its clients include big retailers like Williams-Sonoma, West Elm, and Pottery Barn. Obeetee’s hand-knotted carpets can take up to a year to make, and can cost over $12,000. One small mistake anywhere in the process can lead to the brand rejecting a work. We visited its factory in Uttar Pradesh to see what it takes to produce 350,000 carpets a year.
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00:00 It can take almost a full year to make just one of these carpets.
00:08 And a thorough wash is one of the last steps.
00:12 If there is even a little carelessness, even a little carelessness, the entire carpet will
00:19 be ruined.
00:20 They're made by Obiti, India's largest producer of handmade carpets.
00:25 It makes roughly 350,000 carpets a year.
00:31 And almost all of them go to the U.S.
00:34 It supplies brands like Williams-Sonoma and West Elm.
00:39 One carpet can cost over $12,000.
00:45 That's because weavers make most of them by hand, not by knot.
00:49 We have to be careful with one carpet at a time.
00:56 If we forget to take care of one, it's a problem.
00:58 Obiti can reject a carpet for one small mistake, spoiling up to a year of work.
01:05 Sometimes people are careless, and that's a problem.
01:12 So how does Obiti ensure perfection along the way?
01:16 And how did this region become the carpet belt of India?
01:24 Obiti is 103 years old, but people have been weaving carpets across South Asia since at
01:30 least the 16th century.
01:33 That's when Mughal Emperor Akbar brought Persian weavers here to make carpets for his palaces.
01:39 He settled in what's now the Mirzapur-Badohi region in modern-day India.
01:46 Today over 3 million people here work in the carpet industry.
01:59 Obiti recently made 35,000 square feet of hand-knotted carpets for India's new parliament
02:05 building in New Delhi.
02:07 It took 900 weavers and over 1 million hours of work.
02:13 The company dyes all its yarn in-house.
02:17 Workers load up machines that can hold up to 880 pounds of yarn.
02:24 The batch first goes through a chemical wash.
02:30 Then they prepare the dyes, which are made from chemicals and natural ingredients like
02:35 fruits and bark.
02:39 Obiti takes a sample to the lab and runs a series of tests to make sure the color won't
02:44 rub off.
02:46 Weavers can't get started until they have the map, or naksha, which they have to follow
02:52 in granular detail.
02:55 Each square represents a knot and a specific yarn color.
03:00 The company has its own weaving center with 224 artisans.
03:05 Weavers here use a drum to build the carpet's foundation, or warp.
03:15 But some build it by hand, which can take a full day.
03:19 Obiti works with over 25,000 local weavers, like Ramlal.
03:39 He's been working with the company for about 50 years.
03:53 Once the warp is done, he starts laying down the design, thread by thread.
04:05 Some of these have over 2 million knots.
04:21 And one costly mistake could ruin the whole thing.
04:43 Company officials inspect the work on each one of Obiti's 5,000 looms every 15 days.
04:49 Once each carpet is finished and approved, weavers deliver it to the factory.
04:55 But the work isn't done yet.
05:00 Workers use a blowtorch to burn off loose fibers.
05:10 Then teams of washers give the carpet a scrub.
05:16 Cleaning starts with a water dousing.
05:20 A chemical treatment gets rid of dust.
05:23 Carpets shrink during the washing phase, so they have to be washed again.
05:53 The carpets are then stretched back out once they're dry.
06:00 Then the workers clip and shear the carpet's surface to a specific height.
06:05 Machines help, but they mostly have to do this by hand.
06:10 They also straighten and bind its edges, and trim or knot any fringes.
06:20 After two more rounds of inspection, the carpets are ready for delivery.
06:27 It takes hundreds of workers to keep this operation going.
06:32 But the company has struggled to find new weavers.
06:36 Uttar Pradesh is one of India's poorest states, and young people are moving away to
06:43 find better-paying jobs.
06:56 Many of Obiti's weavers are also farmers.
07:12 Uttar Pradesh's industry has been trying to boost its workforce by recruiting more
07:16 women.
07:17 The Indian carpet industry has been predominantly male for centuries, and this has been a trend
07:23 across industries.
07:26 Last year, only about 25% of working-age women in India were part of the labor force.
07:33 Veteran weavers like Ramlal have trained almost 2,000 women since 2015.
07:41 And they're keeping standards high.
07:44 the industry.
07:51 We have taught our children all our lives.
08:00 We married and married someone.
08:04 This business is going on because our ancestors gave us this property.
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