21st CENTURY ART, C.E. - B.C.
"...the geometry is the light..."
You can't truly practice the grid arts until you fall in love with the
knot, the stitch, the slow rhythm of emerging creation, the endless amount
of time it takes to manifest the colors, the structure, the pattern, one
unit at a time. In Notes on Carpet Knotting and Weaving, Tattersall
begins his analysis of knotting: "Geometrically considered, [carpet] knots
are of three kinds, which, however, have several minor modifications."
p.15. He clearly illustrates each step of his enquiry with hand
drawn illustrations:
Single Warp Knot |
|
Ghiordes or Turkish with one level warp |
Ghiordes two level warp |
Ghiordes two level warp |
|
Sehna or Persian knot, right hand, one level warp |
Sehna left hand, one level warp |
|
Sehna right hand, two level warp |
Sehna left hand, two level warp |
|
Tapestry, two lines weft |
Selvage twined weft, ends of carpets |
|
Soumak right to left |
Soumak left to right |
|
Uncut velvet pile, "Brussels" |
Cut velvet pile, "Wilton" |
|
Machine-made carpet pile |
Warp thread taken singly to weave in metal thread |
|
Slightly sinuous weft, one level warp |
Very sinuous weft,two level warp |
Following are several passages that will give you the pragmatic flavor
of this excellent little book on
"The labour of making a carpet depends rather on the number of knots it
contains than on its actual size, and so wide is the variation in texture
that one carpet may entail more than twenty times the work of another of
similar dimensions. There is little advantage in pushing the fineness very
far. Pleasing textures can be obtained with 25 knots to the square inch;
50 will meet all ordinary requirements; while 100 may be regarded as the
limit that can be reached under Western ideas of the value of time." "
p.20
"In order that carpets may efficiently answer the purposes for which they
are required, they must be substantial fabrics specially adapted to resist
hard wear. They must be strong enough to withstand the stresses which
handling and moving about causes in a heavy object, as well as the
continual pressure and friction to which the surface is subjected when in
use." p.7
Tattersall's Carpet Knotting and
Weaving
is one of those elegantly penned,
utterly simple fine old books
written on exotic subjects.
Read it if you have a chance. It is in a class with
Kates' Chinese Household Furniture
and
Means' A Study of Peruvian
Textiles
-- three treasures of leisurely understatement, modest percision and
old-fashioned
grace.
Images copyright © C.E.C. Tattersall 196l
C.E.C. Tattersall's
work was first published in 1920; the Fourth
Impression with amendments in 1961
by
The Victoria and Albert Museum
In his graceful modesty, Tattersall's
name is not even noted on the cover
Other Websites that deal with knotting and weaving
include:
Weaving and
Knotting
Knotting
in DNA
Eastrn Persia,
Turkish
Carpet
Weaving Demonstration
and don't miss what the physicists have to
say
about knotting and linking at
Series on
Knots
and Everything