Our mother was our teacher and our most valuable source of knowledge. Women are the main crafts folk in the art of carpet weaving. Our mother and the other women used to graze their own sheep and shear the wool. After much work they would hand spin the wool and prepare the various coloured dyes from different plant roots. Their whole life would be spent hand weaving carpets for their own sake and not for the purposes of trade. Rug and carpet weaving was for the sole purpose of creating their own carpets to be used around the house. It is a specialised craft that is time consuming and arduous, requiring the expertise of creating and hand weaving carpets from natural sources.

The manufacture of hand woven rugs is a very intricate craft with the preparation of materials for weaving a specialist field of its own. The first and most important step is the selection of the highest quality wool. The preparation and dyeing of the wool is also very important.

The quality of the wool is very much reliant on the gender of the sheep and the environment the sheep lives, including the weather and natural habitat. The selection of the highest quality wool requires detailed knowledge and training.

The preferred method of wool preparation is for it to be hand spun in a specialised manner as this produces a rug of higher value and strength. Machine spun wool is the cheapest and fastest option available today but it results in the wool fibres to be matted and broken. Apart from machine spinning causing a weakness in the wool, it also instigates the loss of the shine of the carpet. This leads to the shortening of the life-span of the rug or carpet because the matted wool causes the carpet to loose its strength and starts to fall-apart.

More important than the weaving is the quality of the dyes, the specialist art of the preparation of the materials is the most important in producing a quality product. This starts with the selection of the wool as all the subsequent work performed is reliant on the quality of the wool. If the wool is of the highest quality, and has been hand spun, and coloured then the rug or carpet will increase in value.

Carpet Wear

As you may know, hand woven rugs strands will always lean towards the side where the weaving process started, this is known as Alt Bas (Bottom Start). The reason for this is that the starting point of the carpet also becomes the bottom of the carpet. When you lay a hand woven carpet the the Alt Bas area should be placed towards the door so that sweeping is easier. In the old days when sweeping was done with grass brooms it was easier to sweep by following the 'grain' of the carpet. These types of grass brooms are still in use in many areas of the world.

As a consequence the Alt Bas area of the carpet is the first part to get worn out as it is closest to the doorway. Naturally the middle of the carpet also wears quickly as it is the area that gets the most traffic and action, with the other side being reasonably safe from traffic wear.

Other factors that may cause carpet wear and tear include variations in the weaving process. When a carpet is woven one side may be tighter than the other. This will cause the carpet to wear unevenly. The tightly woven area is under more stress and will wear quickly, while the loosely woven area will tend to crease or scrunch up and the raised areas will see more tearing.

Scenes

Here a lady is seen hand weaving a carpet that is rolled on a loom. She is working from a design that would have been either designed by herself or provided by another designer or a special order. They will spend long hours in front of the loom making sure the piece of art is perfect.

 

An inquisitive child sitting in front of the loom eagerly imitating her mothers daily actions. This scene is witnessed in many homes where weaving is performed. Their love for this type of work is nurtured at a young age. A person does not take on the task of weaving for the sake of it as one has to be serious with this profession.

 

This picture shows a weaving loom with a modern design being created and the rolls of wool being used.