Rugs

Who would have thought that after finishing a simple weft-faced sample in a first year weaving class, that I would become so addicted to rugs. I find myself invariably turning the corner over of any rug I come across to see if it is hand knotted. In weft-faced rugs, the warp lies hidden in the middle thickness of the rug and is only seen at the fringes. It is covered almost entirely of closely beaten weft. That being said, not all rugs are weft-faced. By far, my favorite technique in carpets is knotted pile. It is not only because they are steeped in such a rich history, but also because they are probably the slowest of all techniques and therefore require a certain type of madness in attempting to create one.

Weaving on a vertical loom.

Nothing like a hand drawn diagram. These ones illustrate two of the most common types of knots used for pile rugs as well as tapestry weave. On the right is a Sehna or Persian knot and the middle a Ghiordes knot. Ghiordes is a town in northern Irak, from which have come rugs knotted in this manner. There are different reasons for using either knot, while the Ghiodes is much more secure and lends itself to long pile rugs, the Persian knot allows for more knots to be tied per square inch, hence a much more complex design can be woven.

Marta Maas-Fjetterstrom

The Silver Rug c. 1923.

I swoon over this rya rug.

Otti Berger

Flatweave carpet c. 1930

Marta Maas-Fjetterstrom

Black Garden c. 1925

Marion Dorn

Pile carpet with a geometric design c. 1930s

Marion Dorn

Lobby of Claridges Hotel London c. 1935

Eileen Gray

Design for Centimeter c. 1926-29

Centimeter

Eileen Gray

Felt mat c. 1928

Ivan Da Silva Bruhns

Carpet c. 1927

The carpets of Ivan Da Silva Bruhns are among the most highly sought French Art Deco Carpets. If I could own any, it would have to be the one below. I especially love how carpets made during this time were usually signed with the name of the designer or workshop with a monogram.

Ivan Da Silva Bruhns

One of a set of three carpets c. 1935

Sonia Delaunay

Carpet c. 1925

Two amazing books if you want to know more. For technique, The Techniques of Rug Weaving by Peter Collingwood. For Modernist Rugs, the book Art Deco and Modernist Carpets by Susan Day is an invaluable resource.

Wired Commission

I was lucky enough to be invited by Suzy Tuxen at AFOM to collaborate on a commission for Wired magazine. I've been talking about making a carpet for a long time so here was the opportunity. There were many moments where I felt like I was never going to get there! But I did in the end thanks to those with quick nimble fingers who helped weave rows and cut down the yarn to size.

Boxes of carpet presents - cut pile.

Carpets (and weaving in general) is all about graphs. At its most simple a design can be drawn on graph paper and then translated into a carpet, with a few constraints in mind. It took me a while to work out the type proportion and knot ratio, but after sampling and figuring out the right sett (weave speak for how many ends per inch) it all seemed to fall into place.

I felt such a sense of relief when I cut it off the loom before tying up some loose ends and rushing off to work bleary eyed. Not only because it was finished but also because the proportion worked and the carpet was straight. I spent a day tying it onto the loom to make sure the tension was as even as possible.

Although carpet techniques can be simple, they are among the most time consuming. Up there with tapestry weaving. Each row took about fifteen minutes to weave, with no mistakes in it. That makes it 81 knots per square inch. Sounds like a lot but just to put it into perspective, the Ardabil Carpet at the V&A has more than four times as many, totaling 340 knots per square inch. About 26 million knots in total. The Persian carpet is an immensely beautiful piece of craftsmanship dated to 1539/40 AD, most probably a royal commission and one of a pair to have come from a group of mosques in Ardabil in North West Persia. The other rug is housed in a gallery in Los Angeles and is even more densely woven. Over 10 x 5m in size, it would have taken a group of talented weavers with very nimble fingers about four years to weave! I only wish I could have seen it up close and turned a corner over.

Back view of the rug, probably my favourite bit.

It was photographed by the talented Shane Loorham and sent off to Wired to be published in the May issue. Hopefully there are more carpets to come. Thanks Suzy!