The Salon du Tapis d'Orient is a moderated discussion group in the manner of the 19th century salon devoted to oriental rugs and textiles and all aspects of their appreciation. Please include your full name and e-mail address in your posting.
by Daniel Deschuyteneer
Dear all,
I have been assembling photos of pieces with the idea of doing a Salon devoted to offset knotting and have been mulling over the idea that it might interest some readers.
As Marla Mallett shared the same idea and as I have been fortunate to benefit from her help, I am sure you will enjoy reading her fantastic new pages as much as I did, and will be receptive to this Salon. One purpose of this Salon is to think about the reasons for the practice. Sure, we all know that offset knotting has been used to draw sharper and smoother diagonals. But paying more attention to some pieces woven with offset knotting, it appears clearly that this technique has been also used for other purposes such as adaptation of workshop rug design by village weavers or to compensate for unbalanced knot counts or to transfer hooked motifs from flatweaves to pile rugs.
Offset knotting is often considered to be a Kurdish weaving characteristic, especially in eastern Anatolia and western Persia. But is it really? We have Turkic and Turkmen examples from other places (Bergama, central Anatolia, Saryk, Yomut,…).
On the discussion board we will offer some groups of rugs woven with offset knotting, raising some attribution problems. We are looking for more stuff and would be very pleased to share the examples you might have.
Follow this link to Marla's pages on offset knotting.
Many thanks,
Daniel Deschuyteneer