Hands at the Loom
By Jan David Winitz, President & founder
Claremont Rug Company
(Part 1 of 2 Parts | Read Part 2 Here)
Upper: Kurdish mother and her child at a horizontal loom as she prepares the weft threads, testing them for even tension. Lower left: Persian Qashqai, 3rd quarter, 19th century, with the design at each medallion’s center replicating the iron four-pronged plate that sits over a nomadic fire for cooking. Lower right: Young Qashqai girl tending a lamb. All newborns were carried on migration.
Imagine yourself a small girl living in a Kurdish encampment in the mountains of Azerbaijan. The constant activity of the nomadic lifestyle is fascinating for you to watch, the numerous daily tasks of milking the goats, grinding wheat into flour, or carrying water up from the stream. Yet one activity is the most enchanting of all: when your mother takes her place in front of the long horizontal loom to weave.
Her fingers move deftly, effortlessly as she ties knot-after-knot out of the brightly-colored wool. Her body moves rhythmically back and forth as she secures a row of newly formed pile by pounding in horizontal weft threads with her long-handled comb. And very slowly as you watch, as days and weeks go by, a woolen garden begins to take form. Intricate geometricized flowers appear as your mother works on, chanting a continual melodic tune in harmony with the movement of her hands and body at the loom.
Upper: Sheep on migration toward summer pastures, their fleeces newly shorn to withstand summer temperatures of the higher elevations. Lower left: Kurdish, circa 1875, showcasing this tribe’s love affair with joyful colors. Lower right: This beautifully paneled Edwardian home is the perfect backdrop for a top-tier collection of antique Caucasian rugs.
From Turkestan on the east, across Persia to the Caucasus to the northwest, the tribal weaver was a master of several complex skills. First of all, she was a supreme craftsperson who could tie a knot every five seconds to create a 4×8 rug which would contain some 700,000 knots. As well, she was a sensitive shepherd and a magician at the ancient method of vegetal dyeing. Most importantly, she was a genuine artist, whose dexterity of harmonizing color and design was unsurpassed.
Caucasian Karachov Kazak, circa 1860, a High-Collectible tribal rug presenting an original rendition of age-old motifs.
Creating the finest weaving materials is synonymous with following the rugged nomadic lifestyle. Many tribes throughout the rug-making world traditionally went on lengthy semi-annual migrations, allowing their sheep to graze for a few short months on the rich grass of the highest mountain meadows. The result of the combination of this rich feed and the mild summer temperatures produced “mountain oily wool,” the most resilient and lustrous in the world. The mountain Kurdish and Luri tribespeople of Persia were known for producing wool of especially high quality.
The making of a tribal rug took a level of patience and love of physical activity which is unknown to us. The amount of care taken in preparing the wool for weaving had a dynamic effect on the finished product. The newly-shorn wool was first washed thoroughly and then sorted for length and quality. It was carded or “teaseled” to separate and fluff the fibers before being spun. On nomadic migrations, the women were often seen spinning as they rode, a drop spindle in one hand and one or more whorls in the other.
Left: Producing the yarn that becomes the pile of a tribal rug begins with shearing sheep of their fleeces. Right: Each fleece weighs 7-10 pounds and its wool is sorted for different uses. The shoulder wool, being the longest, is kept for knotting yarn.
Left: To protect the lanolin content in the fiber, tribal weavers did not use a “degreasing element” when washing the shorn wool. Right: An elderly Turkoman tribal woman spinning very fine yarn from carded wool with a drop spindle.
Caucasian Bidjov Shirvan, circa 1850, presenting an exceptionally lively, balanced design with three mounted horses.
Finally, the wool was ready to be dyed, an art form that was as highly developed and fascinating as the knotting of the rug itself. The great majority of tribal dyes from the 1800s and early 1900s came from natural vegetal and mineral sources and were obtained only through the lengthy gathering and boiling processes. The bold reds for which tribal carpets are known were often produced from the roots of madder, a spindly bush which grows in the clay soil throughout the rug-weaving areas. Dried yogurt powder was sometimes added to soften the color into lighter hues. The deep blues came from the leaves of the indigo plant and were only extracted after a difficult fermentation procedure. It took over 100 pounds of indigo to produce a mere four ounces of the precious indigo tin dye.
South Persian Arab Khamseh, circa 1850, presenting this tribe’s signature grand medallion and infused with a glorious color palette.
Other dyestuffs included ground henna root or the prized cochineal beetle for the deepest reds, pomegranate or the rare saffron for yellow. To create green, the tribespeople often employed the extremely time-consuming process of over-dyeing yellow wool with indigo. Rich dark brown coloring was obtained from the hulls of walnuts. Camel brown was created by boiling together pomegranate skins with the outer shells of acorns. White was the easiest color to create, as it came from the sheep’s wool left undyed.
Left: Persian Afshar, 2nd quarter, 19th century, a supple gem, its clear colors glowing with the patina of tremendous age, celebrating the boteh or “Seed of Life” design. Right: Caucasian Moghan, 4’ 2” x 6’ 2”, 3rd quarter, 19th century, exemplifying the limitless spirit and spontaneity occasionally reached by weavers of this tradition.
A Caucasian Triple Medallion Kazak contributes great warmth and harmony to this inviting sitting room.
Just as the tribal weaver employed many materials she gathered locally as dyestuffs, she also used not only wool but other available materials for weaving. Certain tribal groups preferred to use cotton rather than wool for the rug’s foundation. Often, nomadic weavers, notably the Baluche, wrapped the sides of their rugs with strong threads made from the hair of their goats. Sometimes camel’s hair was used undyed, adding a magnificent golden-brown color to the carpet’s field.
Upper left: Detail of one of our “walls of yarn” in our Restoration Studio, highlighting the subtle variations of vegetally dyed woad. Upper right: Woad, that yields a lemon yellow color, grows throughout the Oriental rug weaving regions. Middle left: When nomads settled, the men often took over the dyeing process, here stirring a vat of madder dyed yarn. Lower left: Dye pots and the dyeing process are an age-old part of almost every culture. Lower right: Harvested indigo from which the leaves will render numerous hues of blue.
