The best Tabasaran carpets: description, patterns, features and reviews

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Dagestan is the center of hand-made carpet weaving on Russian territory. Distinctive features of Dagestan carpets are the richness of patterns combined with clear compositions and color schemes. All drawings are impeccably and clearly woven, the main ornaments are large in size. In woven products, a combination of warm and cold colors is characteristic.

Dagestan carpet weaving

Dagestan pile carpets, popular all over the world, are produced in the south of the republic. Conventionally, models are divided into four types, which differ in ornaments, density and pile length:

• Lezgins - "ahty", "mikrah", "kasumkent";
• Derbent - "Derbent";
• Rutul - "rutul";
• Tabasaran - "Rushul", "Khiv", "Tabasaran".

For Khiv rugs, the distinguishing features are a long pile (up to 6 mm) and the number of knots (tied at 10 cm2) up to 1764 pieces. In otherscarpet products, the number of knots is less and amounts to 1600.

Features of Tabasaran carpets

Earlier, handmade Tabasaran carpets were considered the most significant household items. Their prices were so high that after selling one, the family could live comfortably for more than six months. Such a carpet product was equal in value to a couple of horses or several heads of smaller cattle.

Tabasaran carpets differ from others in their durability, the secret of which is explained by a special technique for making high-quality yarn. To do this, the wool of high-mountain sheep is used and dyed in different colors using natural dyes: walnut bark, wormwood, barberry.

In the past, every home had a loom for weaving. If it was not used, then it was carefully dismantled and stored until it was needed. A young girl from Tabasaran always had two large carpets and one small carpet product as her dowry. At the same time, one must be woven by her hands, in extreme cases, the bride had to take part in its creation.

In ancient times, to check the quality of the made carpet, horses were allowed to run over it, left for several days in the rain and sun, sometimes soaked. The carpet had to remain in its original form: only then the craftswoman would prove the quality of her work. The best Tabasaran carpets have served their owners for more than three hundred years.

Making Tabasaran carpets

It is generally accepted that Dagestan and Tabasarancarpets are the same. But only in the south of Dagestan the craft of making carpets has been preserved. Such hard work was done exclusively by women. The carpet was woven by a craftswoman together with her friends, neighbors, and relatives. It happens that up to six women work at one machine. They talk, sing songs, tell funny stories, communicate. Sometimes one carpet product was created for more than five months. The carpet is woven by tying knots. It takes up to two seconds for a professional needlewoman to make one knot, and about eight thousand of them are tied in a day. It is noteworthy that more than three million such knots can be counted in a small carpet.

White threads are pulled on the loom in the middle of the house. They serve as a kind of canvas with which the drawing will be woven. On this basis, they begin to tie knots with multi-colored threads, which gradually take on a finished shape.

Pile carpets were hung on the walls to decorate the home.

The lint-free "sumac" carpet, which is used to cover the floor, stands out among others with a special weaving technique. On the reverse side, long woolen (up to 15 cm) threads remain on it. They make the carpet very soft and warm.

When the carpet is woven, it is cleaned of accumulated dust and debris, taken out into the yard. The women who worked on this work are dancing national dances. Such a rite testifies to the end of this difficult work. The dancers convey their positive energy to the carpet. to traditionaldancing is not allowed to single women and those who did not take part in its creation.

The pattern is the main thing in the carpet

Tabasaran carpets are characterized by gradual covering of small patterns by larger fragments. Small sockets are placed over the area of the carpet product. Each of them is placed in medallions. Then they are placed inside the polygons. Any small pattern and all large ornaments are highlighted with a border and color fill. With the help of geometric connections, needlewomen weave multi-colored curls and patterns. In these embossings, an ornament of branches with flowers is placed on the stroke.

In the middle of pile carpets, large drawings are placed in a checkerboard pattern, which are associated with the leaves of trees. In the middle of the largest ornaments, smaller drawings are entered, corresponding in configuration. They are available in lighter or darker colors. Geometric flowers and outlines of birds are woven between large details. The entire pattern of the carpet is combined into a single whole using a stepped stroke.

Safar

Safar is a star, a very interesting pattern of Tabasaran carpets. The name implies the location of the star in the center of the carpet. This is the favorite finish of professional craftswomen. It happens that a small medallion is added to the middle, although there are ornaments without it. The shape of a safar resembles a flower with regular petals. Carpets that are decorated with a star attract attention with a wide variety of shades used. All details of the starplaced across the field in a strictly verified order. The central part of the carpet is most often made in blue and red.

Mercher

Another popular among Tabasaran carpet weavers is the merher pattern, which looks like a sled. In the middle of the product, medallions in the form of squares and hexagons are placed in turn. They are connected along the entire length of the carpet with lines. These combined geometric shapes resemble the silhouette of a sled. Often, drawings are knitted from the bordered edges to the medallions, outwardly resembling a puppet silhouette. The unoccupied space is filled with small elements. The border is distinguished by a large number of patterned fragments, the carpet looks rich and elegant. All figures, drawings and patterns are strictly geometric. Coloring - a harmonious combination of blue and red yarns with the addition of a white, bright blue shade of wool.

Turar, topancha, checkers and pistols

The most demanded pattern of Tabasaran carpet products is turar (checkers). Patterned shapes in this type of pattern are placed diagonally. The name comes from an association with crossed sabers or pistols. These ornaments are united by small medallions. As a result of the diagonal combination, a grid is created that is placed at an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the edges. Traditionally, there are up to three rows of very small medallions in the center, which are united by topancha patterns. Three to seven rows of larger fragments are placed along the width and length of the carpet.

This kindThe pattern is done in light shades of beige, blue, brown. In drawings of checkers, saturated blue, green, red colors, bordered by black, are used. The unoccupied places of the background of the needlewoman are regularly filled with small rosettes or other patterns. The final point in the design of the pattern is a wavy border, the color of which is white with blue patterns.

Derbent Carpet Museum

In 1982, the Museum of Carpet Weaving was opened in the city. It was placed in the premises of the Armenian church, which was built in 1870. Given the thousand-year history of carpet making, the location of the exposition in the city center attracts many tourists. Many of them come specially to see the real Tabasaran carpet. The price of the product starts from 10,000 rubles per square meter of carpet. And this is considering that artificial dyes are used. An original Tabasaran carpet made with natural dyes costs several times more. Today Tabasaran handmade carpets can be seen in the best museums in Paris, London, Tokyo. Houses and palaces of the first persons of various powers are decorated with woven products. At international exhibition events, carpet products constantly win gold medals.

Live, appreciate life and enjoy it - such wishes of the craftswomen are conveyed by the patterns and painting of the carpet. You can peer at the drawing for hours: someone will see the trees and birds on it, someone will see the face of a stranger looking into the distance. The next viewer will consider the mountains risingup, and a plain at the foot, along which a man with a plow goes and plows the earth. It seems that you have seen all the smallest details on the Tabasaran carpets, when suddenly a picture appears before your eyes that you had not noticed before … And again the picture changes …