Hi Richard and Dinie,
First, please
understand I'm no expert on Tibetan rugs. I've picked up a few tidbits
over the years, chiefly to be able to distinguish them from Chinese rugs.
I own one saddle rug that I bought because I liked it, posted
below.
Richard, I don't know for a fact that
all Tibetan
rugs were woven with the Senneh loop technique. I am sure that all the
rugs I've identified confidently as Tibetan exhibit the weaving anomalies
that result from the technique. Whether other conventionally woven Tibetan
rugs exist that have escaped my notice, I can't say. Viewed as a finished
product, the anomalies simply come across as eccentric knots. In addition
to those features, the single "odd tuft" knots show up here and there, but
I don't think they are necessarily essential to the Senneh loop technique;
rather, I believe they have merely become a customary embellishment to
Tibetan pile weaving. Anyway, I'm not aware of a recognized distinction
between "workshop" weaving in Tibet or Nepal and cottage or tribal
weaving. The article in Emmett Eiland's book I mentioned above suggests
that certain elements in the Tibetan social and cultural framework sort of
re-invented pile weaving towards the latter part of the twentieth century;
or at least re-invented key components of it, such as natural
dyeing.
The prominent separation of the pile along horizontal lines
noted by Dinie is a feature of many Tibetan rugs. I don't think it results
specifically from the use of the metal rod itself so much as it does from
of the way the weft lines end up when the Senneh loop technique is
employed. The following diagrams are from Murray Eiland’s book,
Chinese
and Exotic Rugs.
I don’t pretend to
understand how the rugs are woven, and these explanations are over my
head. But they do demonstrate that the resulting “knots” are not going to
lie as uniformly as do knots in conventionally woven rugs. The effect can
be seen either from the back of the rug or by peering into the folded back
pile. Following is my saddle rug with a close image of such an exposed
row.
The separation lines can be seen
on the saddle rug (running vertically due to the orientation of the
image). If you look carefully at the close-up image below it, you will see
warp lines running vertically across the top of the wefts, for example,
the spot just to the left of center where the red (on the left) is divided
from the green (on the right). In fact, these warp lines are evident in
this way at every separation of the knots, and a fairly substantial weft
lies under them, almost like a packing weft in a Bijar. I believe this
arrangement of foundation elements in the Senneh loop technique results in
the distinctive horizontal pile breaks in Tibetan rugs. I tried
unsuccessfully to achieve a photo that illustrated this phenomenon more
clearly.
I tried to illustrate the funkiness of the knotting a
little better, too, as it is more evident with the rug in one's hand. But
you can get the idea. The buff colored knot on the left side with the
angled node is an example. It is part of the Senneh loop technique. The
third knot to the right of the group of four red is another, and the far
right red knot in that group is skinnier than the others. The green node
to the right of the line of green at the center is an example of one of
the single tufts inserted in the weave. I wasn't able to provide an image
of the back, as the piece is lined with fabric (a common treatment of
these pieces).
This piece I've illustrated is one that I would have
had some trouble not assigning to China if it weren't for the tell-tale
weave.
Rich Larkin