Silk carpet introduction
Silk carpets, made of high quality natural silk, are produced in a complicated traditional work. A lot of pre-work was involved before weaving.
1. Make design and match colors
Draw design on a chart and match the different colors on it so that the weavers can follow. This is a creative work. The artisans must have a blue print in their mind. Actually the finished carpet is the representation of the design. To some extent, this is the first important thing because it can determine the value of the carpet.
2. Prepare the material
Reel off the raw silk fiber from the cocoons. One third of the silk from the cocoons can be used to weave silk carpets. Then bind the silk fiber into silk strands. Put the silk strands into boiling alkaline water for 30-40 minutes to make it soft and later rinse the alkali and impurities by clean water.Traditionally use natural pigments (indigo, saffron crocus, acorn cup, and larkspur stem...) to dye the yarns into different colors.But now we use also chemical dye. Generally speaking, about 30 kinds of colors of silk strands will be used when weaving carpets.
3. Hang the warp
Warps will be fixed on the loom rack, which is almost like a standing consisting of 4 bars. The warps will be looped tightly between the top bar and the bottom one. Heddles will be bound between another horizontal bar and warps. After the foundation is woven by plain silk thread the carpet knotting will start.
4. How to knot silk carpet
The silk yarns will be clasped around the warps by either the Turkish Ghiordes knots (Double knots) or by the Persian Senneh knots. Then the end of the silk thread will be cut off by knife. When a raw of knots is finished the weft will run through compartment space between front and back warps. With the comb the knots and wefts will be struck hard against the wefts.
Making tassel,shearing carpet and washing carpet
After monthes" or even years" work the whole carpet is finished. It will be cut down from the loom rack. The ends of the warps will be coiled up into beautiful tassels. The carpet will be sheared evenly and washed thoroughly before being sold.
It will take one girl about half a year to make a 2×3ft carpet of 300 lines (90,000knots per square foot), 1.5 years to weave a 2×3ft silk carpet of 500 lines(250,000knots per square foot), two years to knot a 2×1.5 feet silk carpet with 800 lines(640,000knots per square foot) and 3 years to make a 1.2×1.5 feet silk carpet with 1000 lines(1000,000 knots per square foot). The silk thread used to knot top quality carpet is as thin as a hair. When knotting, weavers even need to use magnifier. The work is so harmful to weavers" eyes that they seldom can make the second same piece. So this kind of silk carpet is named "soft gold".
Carpet weaving history in China
Carpet weaving appeared in China during the West Han Dynasty 2000 years ago. During the 8th century Chinese felt carpets were prevailed and they were even stitched by silver threads. The dragon carpets of the 17th and 18th century were especially magnificent. This was possibly the peak of Chinese knotting art. But very few pieces of ancient carpets produced before the Qing Dynasty (1644 AD-1911AD.) preserved. In the early time of 20th century Americans and Europeans established some carpet factories in Tianjin, Qingdao and Beijing. The mainly material was wool, but silk was applied at that time.
After liberation (1949AD.), carpet-weaving industry was well developed. A lot of new designs appeared such as Peking Design, Esthetic Design, Floral Design, Embossed Design, Antique Design, and Chinese-Persian Design (originated from Middle East further developed in China, very popular at present.). Hundreds of academically educated designers improved the traditional models and trained weaving masters. China became one of the worldwide leading producers of the finest Oriental carpets in the 1980s. The finest silk carpet of the world, with a density of 1,000,000 knots per square foot (1000lines per foot) was from Zhenping, Nanyang Prefecture (our hometown) in Central China. That carpet was listed in Guinness Book of Record in 1998.
Chinese silk carpets are woven out of the high quality silk, Hand-knotted, with high-density and superb quality, graceful and various in design, harmonious in color matching, shining and smooth in surface, soft yet durable in texture, well proportioned and orderly in pattern. Free from confusion, anti-worm-eaten. Due to these features, Chinese silk carpets are of high artistic value, and good for decorations or collection. In addition the reasonable price, Chinese Silk carpets become one of the best-welcomed carpets in the international market.
Knot density
120lines: 14,000knots square foot
300lines: 90,000knots ∕square foot
400lines: 160,000knots ∕square foot
500lines: 250,000knots ∕square foot
600lines: 360,000knots ∕square foot
800lines: 640,000knots ∕square foot
1000lines: 1,000,000knots ∕square foot
Normal size and shape
1ft= 30.48cm 1m=3.28ft 1 square meter = 10.76 square foot
2 x 3(ft)= 61 x 91(cm) 2.5 x 4(ft)= 76 x 121(cm) 2.5 x 8(ft)= 76 x 244(cm)
2.5 x 10(ft)= 76 x 305(cm) 3 x 3 (ft)= 91 x 91(cm) 3 x 5 (ft)= 91 x 152(cm)
3 x 12(ft)= 91 x 366(cm) 4 x 4(ft)= 122 x 122(cm) 4 x 6(ft)= 122 x 183(cm)
5 x 8(ft)= 152 x 244(cm) 6 x 6(ft)= 183 x 183(cm) 6 x 9(ft)= 183 x 274(cm)
8 x 8(ft)= 244 x 244(cm) 8 x 10(ft)= 244 x 305(cm) 9 x 12(ft)= 274 x 366(cm)
10 x 14(ft)= 305 x 427(cm) 12 x 18(ft)= 366 x 549(cm) 18 x 26(ft)= 549 x 792(cm)
When choosing a carpet you should consider the size and shape of the carpet. Silk carpets have special measures. So the size could be approximately with that you want. Silk carpets are works of art and are not made to cover the entire floor, so there usually will be at least 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimeters) of vacant space between the edge of carpet and its surrounding furniture or walls. For the sizes of rectangular, square and runner carpets, it is no need to explain. However for the round carpet the size is measured by its diameter. For the oval shaped carpet, the longer diameter is considered to be the length and the shorter one the width.
Basic Layout
Allover
Carpets in this layout have no central design and the designs spread throughout the whole carpet separately or connected. There may be one same design or several designs appearing repeatedly throughout the whole carpet.
Medallion
In this layout, a large centerpiece is the main design called "Medallion". And this layout is the most popular one in handmade carpet. The shapes of medallions are usually circular, oval, octagonal, hexagonal and star-like. This kind of carpets is always symmetric in layout.
One-sided
For this layout, the designs are woven in only one direction. Therefore the carpet can only be properly viewed from one side. The designs on one-sided carpets are usually images of people, animals and sceneries. Since one-sided carpets should not be viewed upside-down they are often used as tapestries.
Colors
Silk carpets have many colors but the first impression of the color a carpet gives you is the contrast of various colors that creates the different designs. This is the same way in all other art fields. The colors of a carpet are mainly identified by the field (background) color and the border color. The field color is dominant. It usually covers the entire carpet with the exception of the border and the most commonly used colors are red, blue, black, beige and yellow. But some times, the colors of background and the border are so distinguishable. So when choosing the silk carpet you should consider whether the field color matches your furniture and the wall
Styles
There are many styles in Chinese silk carpet. Typical Chinese styles are like dragon design, phoenix design, Buddhist and Taoist symbol design. Persian style is very important and popular. Since introduced in China, it has been very well developed. A lot of high-density knot silk carpets are woven in Persian style. Turkish style and other styles also can be seen in Chinese silk carpets.