Looms

The looms used throughout Asia for the making of kilims are extremely simple and yet, combined with the ancient skills of the weaver, they are an essential part of a process thatresults in the most intricately patterned and tightly structured flatweaves. There are two types of loom —the portable ground loom and the semi-permanent vertical loom used in towns and villages. Nomads, such as the Balouch, Qashqai and some Kurds, use the ground loom because
its simple structure allows it to be easily unpegged from the ground, rolled and packed on an animal for migration and re-erected at the summer or winter quarters. This movement of the loom —often while the weaving of a kilim is still in progress — and its horizontal structure, make it very difficult to maintain tension, so that many kilims produced on
ground looms are slightly curved, or have naturally irregular edges. Large kilims may be made up on these portable looms by weaving either two matching halves that are sewn together lengthways, or a series of narrow tent-band like strips that may then be sewn together in horizontal bands. Ground looms consist of two beams to which the warp threads are attached. The beams are pulled apart to keep the warps taut and held in place by large wooden pegs driven into the ground at each corner. Tension can be adjusted with additional pegs, ropes and twisting poles. A tripod arrangement straddles the loom, from which is suspended the harness stick or heddle rod. Alterenate warps are tied to this stick with string heddles and, when raised, these provide the shed — the space between the warp threads. Another pole, the shed stick, is inserted between the free warps, to create the countershed. The raising and lowering of the heddle rod and the movement of the shed stick create the shed and countershed between the warps through which the weft (usually on a shuttle) may be passed.

The weaver will sit on the finished part of the kilim and move the tripod ahead of her as she works. In villages and towns the vertical, framed loom is used for everything from prayer mats to floor coverings over nine feet wide. The warp beams are located in slots hewn into wooden vertical posts. The tension of the warps is adjusted and maintained with tension wedges. Balls of prepared yarn hang across the face of the loom, ready for use, and the weaver or weavers sit on a raised bench. Very large kilims, or more than one kilim at a time, can be made on vertical looms with continuous warps. The finished kilim or kilims are therefore wound onto the lower warp beam with the work remaining at the same height. The number of warps strung on a loom determines the width of the finished kilim, and the length is determined by the kind of loom used. The texture of a kilim is determined by the thickness of the warps and how closely they are placed, and by the nature of the wefts and how closely they are packed. Some of the kilims from Central Anatolia are loosely woven and blanket—like; the cotton and wool kilims from Senna in north-west Persia are
very fine, whereas the bags of the Balouch are so tightly woven that it is difficult to
penetrate the weave with a needle.
Once the loom is set up within the tent or house, or out in the open under a temporary canopy of old mats, blankets and branches, the weaving may begin. Traditionally, the weaving of kilims has been the preserve of women and girls, although where kilim production is an industry, as in Senna, men are often the weavers. Little girls begin to
help their mother at the loom at about seven or eight years of age. Until recently a girl could be betrothed at five or six, and would have made at least three or four kilims to contribute to her own dowry. Not all tribeswomen were necessarily involved in weaving, and, as with all creative and utilitarian crafts, not all of the weavers were necessarily great craftswomen. The reputations of skilled and often elderly women weavers would spread far beyond the borders of their tribe and be converted to legend on their death. A young girI’s bride price could be influenced by her skill as a weaver. Family patterns and individual designs would be passed down from mother to daughter, daughter to grand-daughter. The young girl might favour and improve a particular colour scheme or design, so that over the years traditional patterns would develop and be slowly modified.