Oriental carpets techniques

Types of structures and carpets techniques in hand-knotted kilim and sumak carpets

It is a very complex topic, if not infinite, but on this page I would like to give you a slight smattering, maybe a little schematic, of how a handmade carpet is produced and the knotted kilim and sumak’s main carpets techniques, so that you can understand what work is required to knot a carpet by hand.

A CARPET’S PARTS

Let’s just see what the various areas are called:  

1 FRINGES
2 BORDERS
3 SECONDARY FRAMES
4 MAIN FRAMES
5 FIELD
6 CANTONALS
7 MEDALLION
8 THE PENDANTS

WOOL SPINNING

Very important phase in the hand-knotted carpets’ material preparation.

If the spindle turns clockwise you get a “Z” spinning effect; if it turns anti-clockwise you get an “S” effect.

SENNEH KNOT

Asymmetrical Persian senneh knot on two warps’ lines

GHIORDES KNOT

Symmetrical Turkish ghiordes or symmetrical on two warps’ lines

KNOTS SEEN IN SECTION

Ghiordes knots called GI, GII and GIII according to the warps’ tension

PERSIAN JUFTI KNOT

It takes two warps’ lines instead of one

TURKISH JUFTI KNOT

This also takes two warps’ lines

SLOPING TURKISH KNOT

symmetrical GI, GII, GIII knot

KILIM WEAVING TECHNIQUES

1 a fissure 2 feathering 3 curved weft 4 coupling weft

SUMAK WEAVING TECHNIQUES

In sumaks the weft wraps the warp in a continuous mode in order to create the planned objects

SELVEDGES’ FINISHING TOUCHES WITH THE BORDERS

the wefts are wrapped onto the last two or three warps’ threads in various ways.

HEADERS’ FINISHING TOUCHES

examples of headers’ finishing touches with fringes, kilims or rack-wise.