For each fabric worked on the vertical loom, the workers first stretch the warp, a skeleton of long, twisted threads of light-colored cotton.
The next step consists in the interpenetration of the wool threads among the cotton ones by braiding.
Finally, the fabric is strengthened by beating.
The materials used are natural, produced by the villagers in their own households. The wool is dyed both with natural colors, extracted from pepper pods (green), walnut leaves (brown), onion leaves (beige), and with chemical dyes (for shades of red and black).
The southwestern area of Romania, Oltenia, is well known for the colorful carpets and rugs created there using traditional methods using the vertical loom (also called loom).
The carpets are endowed with symbols and motifs with strong meanings, deeply rooted in Romanian spirituality. These motifs can be anthropomorphic (woman or man in folk attire, women in chorus), vegetal (colorful flowers with leaves, wood-beams) and animals (birds, roosters, horses, stags and deer).
