A Specialized Kurdish
Selvage
|
|
A handsome decorative selvage made with two
contrasting colors appears on many eastern Anatolian rugs. Mark Hopkins photographed this
detail on a small knotted-pile yastik that is probably Savak Kurd from Malatya Province.
The diagram shows how the weaver wraps or 'ties' vertical series of symmetrical knots over
two pairs of selvage warps, using two sets of wrapping yarns of contrasting colors. Pairs
of yarns do the wrapping and before each wrapping set is combined and brought upward, the
previous pair of yarns is split, with one end pulled to each side. What
a clever
person devised this one! |

|
The diagram does not show the
rug's ground wefts. Those thin wefts alternate with the wrappings, and because they
interlace the four selvage warps individually, they flatten and strengthen the structure. Harald
Bohmer has included a schematic drawing of this
construction on page 119 in the book he co-authored with Werner
Bruggemann, Rugs of
the Peasants and Nomads of Anatolia. He calls it a 'V-form' decorative selvage,
although the yarns actually form upside-down V's as they are worked on the loom.
Alternately, we can call it a selvage with split symmetrical wrapping. Of
the rugs in the Bruggemann/Bohmer book, 14 have this selvage--all knotted-pile rugs from
Eastern Anatolia.
I wonder if anyone has found this decorative selvage construction on rugs from other
areas? Has anyone seen it on flatwoven textiles? |

Split symmetrical wrapping
|

|
In this very skillfully restored
part of
Mark's yastik we can see the center
section more clearly than in the original
portion illustrated above. The left part
of the selvage is obscured by the knotted
pile.
|
|
|
A
Baluch Bag and Its Lessons
|
|
Weft-substitution
details are among the most consistently misidentified rug features. Daniel Deschuyteneer
sent photos of a Baluch bag that is a virtual compendium of motifs found both individually
and in combination on the skirts of pile rugs, so it offers a good opportunity to examine
this weave.
Anyone who has paid the slightest attention to Baluch rugs is surely familiar with the
small yellow undulating border along the top of this bag. But variations on the wide
orange, blue and brown chevron shapes appear frequently on the skirts of early Baluch
rugs too.
Unfortunately, there is no good popular term for this weave, and so we are left with the
generic structural description, weft substitution. The weave is actually simpler
than the name: it is a perfectly plain weft-faced weave, except that one colored weft yarn
substitutes for another to make the design. It is easier in concept than in
practice! V. Moskova used the term "gajari" to describe both warp- and
weft-substitution weaves in Central Asia, but those two basic weaves are easily enough
confused without adding an ambiguous label. In Iran, the structure, along with
complementary-weft
weaves, has often been called "suzani," another term that is improper,
since that means "embroidery."
When not being used in the design, each weft-substitution yarn floats on the
back--usually. The large chevrons in this piece present an exception. Because it is
impractical to float yarns across such wide spaces, most weavers reverse them, to weave
back and forth in those broad areas. In the orange and brown chevron motif at the right,
yarns float on the back only along the diagonal edges where they articulate small bars. In
the wide blue/brown band, the brown yarns have been floated or woven continuously from
selvage to selvage, while the blue yarns have been repeatedly reversed. In the large
detail photo below, this weaver has switched midstream, trying both methods with her brown
yarns. The impracticality of the long floats should be apparent. These loose yarns can
easily catch on objects and snag. They add unnecessary weight to a bag, and are a waste of
laboriously produced handspun yarn. |

|

|

|
|
In rug literature, we have seen the
structure in these broad chevron patterns sometimes called "interlocked
tapestry" or "interlocked kilim." This is incorrect. We have seen
other weft-substitution patterning called "brocading," "supplementary-weft
weave," or even "embroidery." It is none of these! It has also been
called "weft-float patterning"--a useless term which fails to distinguish this
structure from the brocading that appears more rarely in Baluch work.
To see several more examples of weft-substitution patterning, check out the End Finishes Project. The tiny wrapped and bound borders in
the photos here are also examined-- along with lots more!
Weft-substitution weaves are discussed and illustrated in Chapter 7 of Woven
Structures, interlocked tapestry structures in Chapter 6. An unusual Salor ensi
selvage construction that uses this technique is shown on page 150. |
|
|
A Distinctive Senneh Weave
|
|
A friend has brought me a Senneh
knotted-pile rug, along with a bunch of questions: Why do the backs of these pieces
have such a distinctive "sandpapery" feel? How can the knot counts be so
high with symmetrical knots? When the pile is worn, why do the knot collars seem to
slant in opposite directions, looking a little like countered soumak? And finally,
how should we describe this structure, since it looks as though first one warp is
"depressed," and then the other?
All good questions! This particular rug has a warp-predominant ground weave,
with twice as many warps as wefts per inch, and the wefts are heavy and straight. With
each knot tied on two warps, horizontal and vertical knot counts are the same. Because
heavy, taut wefts were inserted with no ease, they forced each warp into a sinuous path.
To crowd in more knots, these weavers consistently pulled the left sides of their knots
slightly tighter than the right. Thus on one row, the left side of each knot was pulled
down over the heavy weft below it. On the following row, where the left warp of each pair
was underneath, the heavy weft prevented the knot from pulling into a position similar to
that of the proceeding knots. On the back of the rug, a bumpy, pebble-like surface
was formed. Most of the light warps are visible on the surface, while most of the wefts
are hidden. With finer weaves, the ground weave elements may be nearly obscured.
It is not appropriate to speak of warps as "depressed" when we describe this
kind of weave. Neither set of warps lies on a plane below the other and the rug's back is
actually "flat." Technically, this is a warp-predominate rather than weft-predominate
or balanced weave. On Central Asian julkhirs and tent bands, knots are tied
on warp- predominant or warp-faced weaves, but in those objects, knots are tied only on
alternate warps. |

|

|

|
|
|
Two Konya Selvages
|
|
The Central Anatolian
knotted-pile rug shown in the first photo here demonstrates a rather novel approach to the
construction of an attached selvage. This rug has from 4 to 6 pale yellow ground
wefts between rows of knots, and successive series of these wefts were extended differing
distances into the selvage area. Here they met heavier red selvage yarns that likewise
were extended varying distances, so that a zigzagging red and yellow selvage was formed.
We properly classify this as an attached selvage, because the outer warp units
were almost entirely free-floating on the loom; in fact, all four selvage warp units (four
pairs of warps) were free-floating in some areas, where they were not interlaced by the
ground wefts. One red selvage yarn was extended slightly into the knotted field at the tip
of each triangle.
So what was the purpose of this strange and distinctive construction? By not interlacing
ground wefts all of the way to the edge, they were subjected to much less abrasion. To
provide addition protection, the thicker red wool selvage yarn singles raised most of the
outer selvage area above the height of the ground wefts. In an analysis we might say:
ATTACHED SELVAGE: 4 warp units (2,2,2,2) interlaced in triangular sections by
the yellow ground wefts, with the intervening reciprocal triangular units interlaced by
heavy red wool singles. The red selvage yarn extends slightly into the knotted field at
each zigzag point. |

|
It is inadequate to merely
describe any selvage as having "wedge shapes," as such shaping with extra wefts
can be used in any construction to add bulk and firm up an edge. In the second photo, for
example, every yellow ground weft has been woven all of the way to the edge. In this rug,
extra red interlacing has merely been added at irregular intervals to equal the space
taken up by knotting in the field--in some areas even forming "wedges." We
properly catalogue this second example as a plain interlaced selvage, and might
describe it:
SELVAGE: 4 warp pairs interlaced by the yellow ground wefts; irregular banding
produced by extra interlacing with red wool singles.
To my knowledge, no one has published information on the selvage constructions of
Konya Province carpets and vastly different weaving practices have been overlooked. |

|
|
|
|
|
MARLA MALLETT
1690 Johnson Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30306
USA
Phone: 404-872-3356
E-mail: marlam@mindspring.com
|
© Marla
Mallett, 2000
|
|
|
Update 1 Update 2
End Finishes Project Frame Loom
Update 6
Update 7
Update 8 |
HOME How to order WOVEN STRUCTURES
SITE INDEX |
|