Generally weavers use two types of dyes to color the yarns which are used to make the carpet, first being vegetable dyes and the other one chemical dyes. Both the dyes are good and give similar substance to the yarn but people usually prefer rugs that are made of natural dyes rather than the chemical ones. The natural dyes are made out of three sources; plants, animals and minerals.
The dyes that are obtained from plant sources are the one which is most widely used in the rug production. Few of the colors that are obtained from plants and animal sources are red, yellow, navy blue, gray, black and brown. The use of natural sources to dye the yarns has been a tradition since ages. Anatolia is a region that has wide variety of plants available around and it is a known center for the production of dyes and this is the region where the process and technique of dyeing has been researched and practiced since ancient times. The dying craft has improved a lot throughout the centuries and even now wide number of rugs is being made with yarns that are dyed naturally.
Motifs and its different types
Since earlier times rugs used to have various different kinds of motifs and emblems weaved into it, while some had animals and flowers others had geometrical designs but the fact is that motifs has been part of the weaving craft since ancient times. Motifs can also be classified into two groups- Geometrical or stylized motifs and Naturalistic or Floral motifs.
The motifs used in the rugs represent in many ways the culture and the civilization where these rugs belong. They represent the origin and its precedent culture which is why the composition of the rugs or its motifs is considered to be a very important cultural item. Each pattern or design that a rug has its own meaning and even if there are mistakes in it, they are only deliberate mistakes done by the artist to represent their artwork and show it’s genuine.
It is very difficult to understand the meaning of the motifs that are being designed in the rugs and to know them is a very long process and also very tiring. These designs have been accumulated slowly throughout centuries and there are so many of them that it is not a task that one can attain in two days time. The rugs and its motifs represent the regions where they belong like Anatolia, Central Asia and their own precedent civilization. Few of the most common motifs that you can see which belong to those regions are the Tree of Life that symbolizes re-birth and long life, then the Horn of Animals which symbolizes power, the Hanging Candles that symbolize eternal light and Hands of Hips that symbolizes the female fertility and mother of God.