Vegetable dyeing wool with isparuk (yellow) and
madder root (red) in Peshawar.
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Making graphs for fine floral rugs in Lahore.Even the graph paper is lined by hand.
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Making the talim (a weaver's instruction sheet in a kind of shorthand) from the graph.It takes days to copy the design.
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Closeup of part of a talim. The weaver reads
the talim from left to right; each row of symbols represents one row of
knots across the loom. Each symbol tells the weaver how many knots of which
color to weave in the row.
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Weaving a fine floral Kashan using a talim (in
front of the loom, between the weaver's legs).Better-quality rugs are woven almost exclusively by men.
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We've just paid for this Bokhara; the weaver seals the
deal by putting his thumbprint on the receipt.
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Clipping fine Pakistani rugs over rollers.
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Soaping up a Kashan in the washing.
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Using paddles to force all the wool clippings and dirt
out of a rug during washing.
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Kashans hung up to dry after washing.
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Straightening a crooked Kashan by moving knots down
the warp strings. Don't try this at home! We try to avoid buying rugs that have had this treatment.
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The Old Fort in Lahore -- Rudyard Kipling's old stomping ground.
Street scene in Peshawar, Northwest Province. Japanese mini-trucks are rapidly replacing the horse-drawn tonga carts.
