This rug is an extension of my exploration of pile weaving techniques. Following up on a small "ruglet" this piece is large enough to fit perfectly in front of the new high efficiency fireplace insert as a hearth rug.
The design is a composite of motifs selected from Layatif Kerimov's "Folk Designs from the Caucasus" - there are 3 concentric borders surrounding a double flower in the center. Around the flowers are several other small figures.
There are 4 colors - white, black, natural gray Jacob handspun, natural beige Shetland handspun.
This piece was worked with a complete set of hand forged tools from the Middle East acquired from Oriental Carpet dealers.
Shearing is nearly comlete, but some rough patches still exist on the surface. This process can take several days and is done in small increments.
The next project is using finer pile yarns and will be the face of a large, bright colored tote bag.
Oh congratulations! -so many fine lines and detail. How wonderful too to have done it with those authentic tools.
You have the books. I think you won't need much of a push to do one of your own.
Hang out in upscale rug showrooms with repair departments - they'll occasionally sell you those tools.
Sara that is a stunning piece.
One thing I've wondered about with cut pile rugs is the amount of waste. The Persian carpet that I bought has the pile trimmed to about a quarter of an inch, but those piles must have been quite a bit longer before trimming in order to tie the "knot". I've seen videos of mid-east weavers working on rugs and before trimming they are quite shaggy, so it looks like an inch or so might get trimmed. If that's the case, then the trimmings (weft thrums!) would be a significant proportion of the weft yarn used. Since the traditional makers of pile carpets lived (I'm sure) with an ethic of not wasting such a valuable commodity as yarn, they must have used that fuzz for something. Maybe as stuffing or felt?
Your rug appears to have woven very square with the weft you used, so when you go to a finer yarn will the warp sett be closer? You refer to a cartoon -- was it a charted pattern that you followed row-by-row or was it a attached behind the weaving and eyeballed as is done with tapestry?
Fine job and thanks for posting it here.
Bonnie.
1. Yes, there is significant waste. I've not been saving it, but I suppose you could stuff things with it. The cut off ends are less than an inch long - and I have the feeling that as I get better at this, the "overage" 'will shrink. Not wasting is a good concept, but it can be taken to extremes as well. I have never saved thrums except as strings to tie the next warp chains - using long warps to cut loom waste significantly.
2. Squaring the design - that is the whole "mystique" of knotted pile. The optics can be altered by using thicker or thinner pile weft, thicker or thinner tensioned or sinuous weft - as well as placing the knots closer together. With wool as warp, 7 or 8 warp pair per inch is about maximum or the threads stick together. To get more knots per inch, more rows per inch are beaten in by trial and error until the pattern looks "right". I'm working on a new piece that I would like to have slightly "smooshed" and am playing around with the materials on the first few rows.
3. I did a "cartoon" like I'd seen in photos of ladies in the Middle East - working from a charted design, smaller in scale than the rug and hung at the loom. For this piece, I worked up the design in Stitch Painter from small single motifs tiled and rotated around the area - in this case 130 knots by 220 rows. The single flowers need only be entered. The borders are entered as a single repeat and modified to form the rectangle needed. Colored areas are then completed using paint bucket and pencil tools. The final printout is scaled as large as legal sized paper allows.
This is lovely, Sara. Which knot did you use? I've only done one knotted carpet, a rya rug that looks a bit like a hairy pineapple from the right side (but much better on the back!). For that the knots were wrapped on a stick and cut without waste. With your technique could you wrap on a small dowel and cut like a long velvet? Not authentic, but a way to lower the waste and help the cost. Or, does the incremental shearing help the yarn to bloom more and allow or favor sculptural effects?
Laurie Autio
No, Laurie, that is 30,000 Turkish knots done one at a time with traditional tools. The amount of waste over 7 months was so tiny that I really don't think about it. If you don't obsess over what is cut off, it simply becomes part of the process.
I can now do over 1000 knots in a day without spending inordinate amounts of time on it. To do an intricate pattern, you first put in the outline knots, fill in the shaded areas and lastly the background.
I shear each row roughly as I weave and continue the process off loom a little at a time - after washing to let the yarn bloom.
Makes sense. 1000 a day sounds like a good rate for individually tied knots. Takes the time down to 30 weaving days, which is not bad.
Laurie Autio
Have you thought about posting a short little video to show the on-loom process? (YouTube or elsewhere?)
This is pretty amazing! Thank you SO much for posting.
I'm busy preparing for Convergence - on other topics.
I'll be looking into some continuing instruction/mentoring in this technique with an eye to offering classes/workshops later.
I do not post to YouTube - what I make stays under my control, your copyright status on those films is not good for working artists.
The rug is beautiful. I have not made a knotted rug since college, and have been thinking of them recently. Yours is an inspiration.
