Azerbaijani rug

Azerbaijani rugs are a product of Azerbaijan, an ancient center of carpet weaving.

Dyeing wool

At dyeing workshops, professionals dye yarns with dye-stuffs mainly of plant origin, strictly following the centuries old traditional techniques of colouring.Though appearing to be simple at first sight, this work requires high skills of a dyer. To prepare the seven basic colors (red, green, yellow, black, dark blue, white, purple) and their tints used in carpetmaking, professional dyers use green walnut shells, the skin of pomegranates, indigo, leaves of the mulberry, quince and walnut plants, and roots of madder. For example, in order to achieve yellow and its hues, they use bulb onion peels, mulberry leaves collected in the late autumn, etc. To produce red and pink colors, madder is used, and to obtain dark blue, blue and green, indigo dye is used. At the very end of the yarn dyeing process a dyer adds salt, alum or vinegar into the dye solution to increase the intensity, fastness and durability of colours. Then, dyed yarns are pressed and dried with special techniques.

Weaving

On weaving looms made of strong, high-quality materials and having advanced technological characteristics, woollen and silk carpets of various sizes (from 1 to 40 sq. m.) with average knot density (from 35õ60 to 55õ55) are woven in acomparatively short space of time.

To make these fantastic carpets, only three hand tools are used - a knife, a beater and shears.These carpets completely satisfy modern demands for quality and at the same time they preserve ancient carpet-weaving traditions.

Washing, Drying and Smoothing

Dust accumulated on the carpets and fringes while weaving is cleaned in the rotating wooden drums made of pistachio tree. After this they are thoroughly washed in special pools with soap and other washing liquids suitable for carpet washing. Finally carpets are dried.

One of the secrets to the carpets' unusual beauty is their smoothness and pile brightness achieved through the process of smoothing by applying up-to-date advanced technology.After the carpets have been smoothed out, they become soft and pleasing to the eye.

Pulling

In most cases carpets manually woven of silk and wool have clear unevenness of their edges. To eliminate this defect carpets are fastened to wooden floors with their four ends pulled. Then the carpet is raised up from the middle by means of special wooden lifters and smoothened on the back side. After that the carpet is pulled and fastened to the wooden floor again and left in this position for two days.As a result of this process the crookedness of the carpet which has just been taken off the weaving loom is totally eliminated and the edges of the carpet become straight.

Several types of Azerbaijani rug are made. These include the Karabakh rug, Quba rug, Ganja rug, Shirvan rug.

Types of rugs

Azerbaijani carpets are divided into three types:

#Quba-Shirvan (with manufacturing centres in Guba, Shirvan and Baku);
#Ganja-Gazakh (with manufacturing centres in Ganja and Gazakh);
#Karabakh (with manufacturing centres in Karabakh, Shusha and Jabrail);

Azerbaijani rugs are often distinguished by intricate ornamental compositions. Some designs bear the names of the localities where they originated (Pirebedil, Chichi, Afurdja, Salakhly and Shikhly), or of the ethnic groups that invented them (Sor-sor, Djek, Gryz, Gasym ushegy, Talysh and Gara goyunlu). The distinctive feature of Azerbaijani carpets is that their decorative scheme comprises phyto-morphous, zoomorphous, anthropomorphous (this despite the Muslim taboo on depicting human images) and geometrical elements.

Links

* [http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/82_folder/82_articles/82_carpet_museum.html Azerbaijan Carpet/Rugs During Soviets]
* [http://sunse.jinr.ru/~mehdiyev/carpet0.htm History of Azerbaijani Carpets/Rugs]
* [http://www.travel-images.com/az-carp.html Carpets of Azerbaijan]
* [http://www.rugreview.com/95azer.htm Azerbaijani Carpets and Embroidery]
* [http://azerbaijan.aznet.org/azerbaijan/ The Land of Arts - Carpets by Regions]
* [http://www.azeris.com/culture/carpets/index.htm Carpets of Azerbaijan]