In this issue we’re going to talk about, where do the carpet patterns that make you gasp come from? It’s really worth thinking about where they were taken from. If you don’t have the answer, follow me!
Influenced by Islam, the patterns of handmade carpets are mostly taken from the tiles of beautiful mosques and stone carvings of palaces; out of the worship of nature, let Persians add different elements such as natural scenery, birds and animals, flowers and trees to the carpets. In general, traditional handmade carpets can be divided into two categories, one is the straight line geometric pattern and the other is the landscape, floral and animal pattern. All the decorative patterns in the straight-line geometric pattern category are composed of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, which are repeated to form the central pattern.
Most of these carpets were woven by nomadic tribes and villages far from towns and cities, so the patterns are relatively primitive. The category of landscape, flower and animal patterns is also called curved realistic patterns, and it is said that many of these patterns are transmitted from China, because in these patterns, many patterns that are exactly the same as Chinese carpet patterns are still preserved. The unique color is also the main basis for judging the value of a handmade carpet, and the number of colors directly affects the value of the carpet, the exhibit-grade carpet may have up to 250 colors, and its price is of course very high.
The focus and use of natural pigments in handmade carpets is such that the colors remain as vibrant as ever after centuries. Most handmade carpets are dyed with crops grown in local farmlands or mountains, such as pale yellow from pomegranate peels, ochre from walnut peels, and some even from insects, such as red often dyed with a small black insect.
Before dyeing, there is a complicated process. The wool is first rinsed and dried, and then the clean wool is hand-rolled into a spun thread. The wool is placed in a dye barrel for a period of time, and the color of the dyed wool varies depending on the length of the soaking time, and only a professional craftsman can grasp the length of this time. After this process, the yarn is hung up directly without squeezing or rubbing, because the color of the yarn will become uneven. Finally, the dyed wool is placed in the sun to dry.
Handmade carpets are made with a single knot, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive, but very tight. The hand knotting process alone requires a lot of effort. The number of knotted yarns per unit area is the main criterion to measure the quality of carpet, the more knots, the more delicate and dense the pattern of carpet. Statistics show that the minimum density of handmade carpet is 30 knots per decimeter, about 90,000 knots per square meter. The highest knot can reach 1 million knots per square meter. To complete these processes, great patience and care are needed.
It is said that to weave a handmade carpet, a professional weaver has to start learning from the age of seven or eight and cannot fully master it until marriageable age, and it takes 14 to 18 months to complete one because of the emphasis on hand weaving. Each handmade carpet has a different color pattern, and an excellent weaver can only weave two such extremely detailed handmade carpets in his lifetime.
The history of handmade carpet weaving is as long as the history of its country, and its requirements for the selection of raw materials, color matching, design of patterns and weaving techniques are extremely strict. It was found in the tomb of Prince Risia in the Pazyryk Valley of Siberia in 1949. According to radiocarbon tests, this hand-woven carpet was produced in the 5th century BC.
This is the end of this issue of sharing! Is not let you exclaim the intersection of art and beauty, human wisdom and perseverance is very amazing, more let people stay in the continuous development of historical beauty.