The
various Turkmen Tribes are among the quintessential nomads
of Central Asia. Although it is not known who first developed
the art of weaving a pile carpet, it has long been suggested
that the Turkmen were among the first to refine this art and
bring it to an unsurpassed level of technical, visually expressive,
and symbolically transcendent mastery. All this was achieved
while maintaining the strictly tribal and generally nomadic
character of their existence, something reflected in the purely
functional format of the great majority of their weavings.
The Ersari are one of the larger main groupings
of Turkmen Tribes. They traditionally (in recent centuries)
lived in the more eastern part of the range of the Turkmen,
near to Bokhara and Samarkand. After the Russian revolution
most moved south to join their relations in northern Afghanistan.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan saw these refugees once
more displaced, as many fled to Pakistan in order to maintain
their religion and way of life.
It is there that this project took root.
Brave and industrious people, they were willing to do whatever
was necessary to maintain themselves and their way of life.
What they have always known best was weaving carpets. Due
to the pressures of the modern world the art and technique
of dyeing wool with vegetable dyes for carpets had largely
passed out of existence in the last 40 to 80 years. It was
the initial aim of our project to rediscover and revive those
techniques, and then combine them with traditional Ersari
designs that had also fallen out of use.
Having lived somewhat nearer than most ot
the Turkmen tribes to the great Central Asian commercial and
artistic centers of Bokhara and Samarkand, the Ersari adopted
a far greater range of color and design in their weavings
than many of the other remote Turkmen tribes. It has been
our intent to attempt to revive this rich tradition of design
and color in all the glorious hues of their original vegetal
dyed antecedents.
The principle dye sources we use to achieve
this are madder root for red, indigo for blue, and asparak
flower or pomegranate husks for yellow. Manipulation and combination
of these dye sources allow us to achieve a wide palette of
colors. Wool is as important as dyes to the creation of a
great rug. To this end we use only hand carded, hand-spun
wool from Afghanistan. While our wool source may vary from
time to time we are constantly searching for the best available
and the wool most consistent with the lustrous, long staple
wool found in antique Ersari Turkmen carpets.
All of our carpets are washed in soap and
water only. While they may shine less initially we feel that
the long term benefit to the customer is great. This is the
way in which the carpets we are recreating were traditionally
finished. The wonderful sheen which they developed came after
years of use and washing, and we believe that our carpets
will achieve the same if given the chance. Each carpet contains
a small inscription, usually woven into one corner or end
giving the name of the weaving family, the place woven and
the date, as well as the weaver's preferred choice of identity,
usually "Turkmen Mahajer" -- Turkmen refugee. These
inscriptions are in Persian characters, however English translations
are available. While not something that was so common traditionally,
we feel that these inscriptions provide a personal connection
between the ultimate recipient of these carpets and the hard
work and artistry of the weavers.
|
