� THE ART OF CARPET
Eternal values
Pictorial Patterns Some of the most interesting weaves of the Baluch tribe are pictorial rugs . They may lack in variety ( special in the more recent samples ) but they have always attracted the attention of scholars and collectors . Some famous pictorial patterns of Baluch tribes include : hooshang shahi , pa boland , savarkaran and shahi . Unfortunately some of them are no more woven . While inspecting some pictorial Baluch rugs , one cannot help but notice the emphasis on femininity and female images in general . This potentially happened because of the closeness of Baluch and Sistani tribes . Evidently , women and femininity were very important in old Sistani civilizations , particularly in Shahr-e-Sookhteh [ 7 ], which had a powerful government that was more feminie . This government could have had major cultural impacts on big areas of eastern Iran . These impacts are evident in various weavings of different tribes , from Baluch carpets to furnitures and even tattoos [ 8 ].
Other famous old patterns of Baluch carpets include qalamdan , mah-va-nim-mah , bid-e-majnoon and bazoobandi . Sadly , they have gradually forgotten over the decades and the more recent samples lack the finesse of the old ones .
Weaving Techniques Baluch carpets are always created with asymmetrical knots . The rare works with symmetrical knots are probably works of Sistani weavers and their traditions . The oldest Baluch carpets are older than 150 years . Most of the Baluch rugs that are older than 100 years are woven with tak-pood-e-pazok ( takht baf or depressed warp ) technique . This technique has gone through many changes and in more recent samples of the recent decades , weavers mostly use double-wefted and lool baf ( offset warp ) techniques . In Baluch traditional weaving , each carpet has a selvage that is made of black goat ’ s hair and is about 2 centimeters wide . The reason behind using goat ’ s hair is that it is so resilient that moths and other insects cannot chew on them , hence making it impenetrable and a great protector of the central parts of the carpet . It ’ s water proof as well and doesn ’ t allow any amount of humidity to reach the center of the carpet .
Baluch weaves are usually small in size ; less than 4 m 2 to be precise . Weaving runners was also unprecedented among the Baluch weaving tribes and their traditions , but it has been on the rise during the recent decades in very limited numbers .
The variety of colours used in Baluch carpets is also very limited and rarely exceeds six or seven colours . The main colours include brown , navy blue and dark red with cream , jujube red , and khaki and in some cases , green .
It is noteworthy that Baluch weavers mostly weave without any physical design plates and keep the designs in their minds as they attempt to weave .
See a collection of carpets in the slideshow
Rouzini ( saddle cover ) with Chahar Morgh design , 80x76 cm , late 19th to early 20th century .
Baluch weaves of Varamin As mentioned before , the Baluch tribal form of living in Varamin goes back to a little more than two hundred years ago . One might wonder what makes the study of Baluch weaves so important . The answer is in their wide variety . Variety that doesn ’ t just include carpets but all sorts of weaves that are valuable and quite useful in day-to-day living . This is not just only carpets but all different sorts of weavings , valuable and quite useful in life . They are khorjin , mafrash , sofreh and namakdan ( salt bag ) that are categorized as woven containers . They are created using different methods , whether by using knots like a carpet , without knots ( flat-weave ), Gelim or a combination of them .
Weaving as a tradition has faced a significant decline among the Baluch tribes of Varamin and all other tribes of Varamin alike . The main reason is people ’ s change in lifestyle and returning to their main habitats .
Text : Turaj Zhuleh , Carpet scholar and author . Graduate of the first ever associate program of carpet in Iran , Tehran University of Art , 1992
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