About Us
Our Story
My name is Youssef Habibeddine, and before this was a website, it was my mother's loom. I grew up in the shadow of the Atlas Mountains watching her sit for hours at a time, her hands moving through raw wool faster than I could ever follow, turning it into the same rugs my grandmother had taught her to make, and her mother before that. The sound of a loom is something you don't forget — the rhythmic knock of the comb packing down each row of knots, over and over, for days.
Weaving wasn't a hobby in our house. It was how my mother fed us, how my aunts supported their own families, and how an entire cooperative of women in our community turned wool, patience, and generations of memory into something people in other parts of the world would eventually put in their living rooms. I watched rugs take shape one knot at a time and I understood, long before I had the words for it, that every rug leaving our village was carrying someone's work, someone's story, and often someone's only income for that month.
Why I Built This Website
For years, the rugs my family and our cooperative made were sold to middlemen who came through the region, paid a fraction of what the rugs were worth, and resold them for many times that price to buyers who never knew whose hands had actually made them. I started Berber Rug Weavers because I wanted to close that gap — to let the artisans I grew up around sell directly to the people who would actually live with their work, without losing most of the value to someone in between. Every rug on this site comes from weavers I know personally, in the same cooperative my mother has been part of for most of her life. When you buy from us, the money goes back to the mountains, not to a warehouse somewhere in between.
Our process
Amazigh women have been handweaving textiles since 600 B.C., passing the craft from generation-to-generation. Each step of the weaving process is rich with tradition and meaning; from harvesting and dyeing the wool, constructing the loom, to the final design of the weave.
The Wool
Our rugs are made with sheep, goat, or camel wool. Our artisans use “live wool,” which means, the wool it’s taken from live animals, without harm. The wool is healthier and stronger this way.
Wool Preparation
After the wool is sheared from the animal, the artisans wash, card, brush, and spin it into yarn. Every step of this process is done by hand.
Dyeing
Our artisans usually dye their wool themselves using local, naturally sourced spice, plant, and herb blends. For example, henna leaves create an earthy red while pomegranate peels make a brighter red. Saffron and chamomile flowers both make yellows. Olive leaves make light green and walnut peels make brown.
The Loom
Each textile is made on a vertical loom. These looms are constructed by hand and treated with traditional rituals to protect the loom and the rugs from evil. One common ritual involves breaking a piece of sugar against one side of the structure, and a date on the other.
Knot by Knot
Depending on the size of the loom and weave, up to five women will sit at one loom and begin the weeks-long process of building a rug—one knot at a time. On average, each rug contains 50,000 knots.
Hammer Comb
After each row of knots is tied across the length of the loom, a pronged hammer combs is used to tightly press the weave of the rug.
Cutting From the Loom
Once the weave is completed, it must be removed from the loom. With tradition passed down through generations, the artisans expertly cut the rug from the loom and hand tie the tassels.
Washing and Drying From the Sun
Finally, the finished rugs are washed with water, scrubbed clean, and dried in the Moroccan sun.
