A carpet may well be the most expensive purchase from your trip to Kashmir but
it is a lifelong investment. Kashmiri carpets are known the world over for two
things - they are handmade, never machine made, and they are always knotted, never
tufted. It is extremely instructive to watch a carpet being made - your dealer
can probably arrange this for you.
Stretched tightly on a frame is the warp of a carpet. The weft threads are passed
through, the 'taleem' or design and colour specification are then worked out on
this. A strand of yarn is looped through the warp and weft, knotted and then cut.
The yarn used normally is silk, wool or both. Woollen carpets always have a cotton
base (warp & weft), while silk usually has a cotton base. Sometimes however,
the base is also of silk, in which case you will see that the fringe is silk,
and the cost increases proportionately. Occasionally, carpets are made on a cotton
base, mainly of woollen pile with silk yarn used as highlights on certain motifs.
When the dealer specifies the percentage of each yarn used, he is taking into
account the yarn used for the base too. Therefore, a carpet with a pure silk pile
may be referred to as "80 per cent silk carpet". Do not be alarmed!
He is merely stating that the warp and weft are not of silk.
A third type of yarn staple, also referred to as mercerised cotton, is also mentioned
here, although it is by no means traditionally Kashmiri, but a man-made fibre.
Its shine is not unlike that of silk, although in price it is much lower than
silk, but more expensive than wool. Staple carpets are made to fill a slot in
the market – customers demand carpets, which are not unlike silk in appearance
so as to blend with the decor of their houses. One important difference between
silk and staple though is that pure silk is far lighter than staple per unit area.
Carpet weaving in Kashmir was not originally indigenous but is thought to have
come in by way of Persia. Till today, most designs are distinctly Persian with
local variations. One example, however, of a typical Kashmir carpet is the "tree
of life". Persian design notwithstanding, any carpet woven in Kashmir is
referred to as Kashmiri. The colour-way of a carpet and its details, differentiate
it from any other carpet. It should be kept in mind that although the colours
of Kashmiri carpets are more subtle and muted than elsewhere in the country, only
chemical dyes are used - vegetable dyes have not been available now for a hundred
years.
The knotting of carpet is the most important aspect, determining its durability
and value, in addition to its design. Basically, the more knots per square inch,
the greater its value and durability. Count the number of knots on the reverse
of carpet in any one square inch, and it should be roughly the same as the dealer
tells you, give or take 10 knots. If you are told that a carpet contains 360 knots,
and your count indicates about 10 less, it simply means that the weft has not
been evenly combed down in parts -- this is not a fault, and several random checks
throughout the carpet will even go above the figure of the dealer's estimate.
Also, there are single and double-knotted carpets. You can quite easily identify
one from the other on the reverse of the carpet. The effect that it has on the
pile too is important - a double-knotted carpet has a pile that bends when you
brush it one way with your hand, and stands upright when it is brushed in another
direction. A single knotted carpet is fluffier and more resistant to the touch,
there is no 'right' and 'wrong' side to brush it.
Points to keep in mind when choosing a carpet:
* Whether it has been made of silk pile on silk base, silk pile on cotton base,
silk and wool on cotton base or wool on cotton base.
* The number of knots on the reverse of the carpet; whether one or more line in
the design has been omitted completely in which case the pattern looks lopsided;
* Whether any element in the design has been wrongly woven so that one motif is
larger or smaller at one end than the corresponding motif at another end, etc.
* Whether each motif or element of design has clear, crisp outlines; blurred edges
indicate a fault in the weaving.
* Whether the edges of the carpet are crooked as if it had been incorrectly mounted
on the frame, so that one end is broader than another.
