 Carpets are laid
out to serve varied purposes, from a mundane daily use item to a highly priced, exotic
decorative possession. Today, the market is flooded with cheap imitations and low value
products made with lower grades of raw material. However, there still exists a select
group of craft lovers who only go for traditional design, rendered in traditional
material, using the traditional methods. At the IHE, the carpets on display are strictly
hand-made, hand-knotted, in traditional Kashmiri designs and made through traditional
fabrication methods. The Kashmiri
Carpet Design tradition finds its roots in Persian Carpets, which have titillated
craft lovers the world over, for centuries.
 To categorize,
the Kashmiri carpets can be divided (material-wise) into two broad categorize: Woolen
Carpets and Silk Carpets.
Woolen Carpets are further classified into two - Normal and
Marino. Silk carpets come as silk on Cotton and silk on silk, all named on the basis of
the raw and base material used.
 The quality of
any carpet depends upon the knots per inch it has. Higher knots per inch would mean more
compact and refined designs, which not only looks elegant but also involves more effort
and material in the making.
Woolen carpets allow a maximum of 400 knots per inch but in
Silk, one can go upto1200 or even higher. It is this fineness of knotting which allow
exquisite and highly detailed design to be incorporated in Silk carpets. |
