Dyeing

When the yarn for a carpet is spun, the next phase is to colour it. This is a complicated process which demands knowledge and accuracy to achieve good results.

For the more exclusive carpets, the yarns used are solely coloured with natural dyes. The more simpler carpets often contains a mixture of natural and syntethic dyes.

Some natural dyes can be produced fairly easy by collecting shells, from walnuts or pomegranate for example, and make a decoction from these. Other colours are easier to produce in a synthetic way.

The colouring can be made in the home or by leaving the yarn to a dye-house. Nomadic and village carpets sometimes show a variation in the colouring, abrash. The reason for this is that the weaver may have not had enough yarns in that certain colour.

During the work, a new dye has to be done with the yarn which did not match the previous nuance perfectly. In village and nomadic carpets, with its primitive patterns, this abrash, is not to be considered a defect, more like a reminder about the weavers work conditions.