Abdul Aziz Farmanfarmaeian designed the building of the museum using the latest technology of the time. In fact, one of the highlights of the Carpet Museum lies in its exterior design that resembles a carpet loom, presenting a mixed architecture of classic style belonging to the 1970s and carpet inspired features. The museum is located in the north-west corner of Laleh Park and Contemporary Museum of Art.

The interior space of the museum has an area of around 3,400 m2 on two floors. The first floor displays a permanent exhibition of those carpets bought by the museum, while the second floor is devoted to a temporary exhibition of handicrafts and private owners’ collections.

The museum has a treasury consists of carpets with a variety of designs, colors, and textures, belonging to Kerman, Tabriz, Isfahan, and Kurdistan provinces. The oldest carpet of this museum dates back to the 15th century.

The post Carpet Museum of Iran appeared first on Persia Advisor.

Kashan Carpet
Photo by Fotokon / Shutterstock

Kashan city is located in the north of Isfahan Province, Iran, with a history dating back to 9,000 years. The ruins of the ancient part of the city have remained at the archeological site of Tepe (hill, mound) Sialk. One of the major arts for which the city is famous for its carpet weaving. Kashan has always been a major center of carpet-makers in Iran, more than two-thirds of whom are women. The objects found from Tepe Sialk bears witness to the advanced skills of fabric making by its prehistoric inhabitants.

The first step of making a carpet is choosing a design elaborated with its special motifs. A design with its motifs/patterns are drawn over a graph paper such that each graph cell represents a knot in the carpet. The patterns in a graph paper are drawn in half or quarter of the original size and the weaver will make the whole carpet based on that. The usual patterns used in Kashan carpets are the same as those used in Isfahan cities, such as Flower Vases, Altar, Hunting, Animals, Arabesque pattern, and Lachak Toranj.

Kashan Carpet
Photo by Michal Knitl / Shutterstock

After choosing a desired design for the carpet, the weaving begins on a loom covered with strands of wool also known as warp. The Kashan carpet is made by asymmetrical knotting, a method of weaving called Farsi weaving style as well.

In this style of weaving the colored wool used for weaving passes behind the first strand of warp and then goes around the second, linking the two strands in a knot. The number of knots, usually made of wool and silk, in a square decimeter accounts for 1600 to 1800. The traditional skills of carpet weaving in Kashan was inscribed in 2010 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

The post Traditional Skills of Carpet Weaving in Kashan appeared first on Persia Advisor.