The Loom

There are two types of looms: the vertical loom and the horizontal loom. The latter was used in the early period by the tribes of central Asia. With the Muslim conquest,  however, the vertical loom gradually became common in Anatolia; it had long been used in the Near East, and is the  most popular type of loom in Turkey until today. An example of a vertical loom is on display here.

The Parts of an Oriental Rug....

Warps are the parallel strings stretched from loom beam to loom beam upon which ows of knots are tied. Most weavers use otton for warp material if it is available ecause it is easier to weave a flat, straight rug on cotton warps than on wool warps (woolyarn is more elastic than cotton string, and is ore affected by changes in humidity). Weavers who are semi-nomadic pastoralists (i.e. not farmers) are much more likely
to use wool than cotton for warp and weft.



Weaving and Knotting The woven carpets, produced from the interlacing of warp and weft threads, are  divided into two types: flat weaves (such as the kilim and sumaq carpets, which  are not represented in the exhibition) and pile carpets, on display here. The pile was created by knotting different colored threads around two vertical warp threads on the loom. Several types of knots were used. They two mains ones are the symmetrical Turkish knot called, ghiordes, which was widespread in Anatolia, and the asymmetrical Persian knot, called Senna, found in the Persian-speaking lands.

Wefts run across the width of the rug, over and under the warp strings and between rows of knots. Most often wefts are made of cotton, wool, or silk . Wefts help hold rows of knots in place and strengthen the structure of the rug.
Knots are tied by looping yarn around pairs of warps and cutting off the standing end. The ends of the "knot" become the pile or nap of the rug.
Edge bindings are made by wrapping several warps at the edge of the rug with yarn to reinforce this part of the rug.
 End finishes hold knots and wefts from working off the rug's warp strings. Many rug types have a flat-woven kilim selvedge at both ends.
Fringes are formed by gathering and knotting together bundles of warp strings at both ends of the rug after the rug has been cut from the loom. The knots in these bundles of warp strings keep pile knots and end finishes tight at the rug's ends.

 The Parts of a Rug Design....


 The field is the background of the rug inside the borders.

The main border is the widest decorative design around the outside of the rug; guard borders are the narrow decorative designs flanking the main border.

The medallion is the round, oval, or polygonal design element that sometimes occupies the center of the field.

Corner brackets or spandrels are designs which sometimes fill the corners of the field.

 

The Parts of a Rug Loom....



Most weavers work on fixed, vertical looms (although some semi-nomadic weavers in areas of Afghanistan, Turkey, and Iran still use the more portable horizontal ground loom). A simple vertical loom is little more than a sturdy frame, usually made of wooden timbers, designed to hold taut the warp strings upon which the weaver ties rows of knots. A heddle is used to separate alternate warps so that the shuttle carrying the weft string can be passed between warps from one side of the rug to the other. More sophisticated vertical looms have their upper and lower beams constructed as rollers. A roller loom lets the weaver roll the completed part of a rug under and to the back of the loom, allowing the construction of a longer carpet on a loom of the same vertical size