Namad māli (Felt processing)

Namad māli (Felt processing)

Felt is a traditional type of carpet material, produced with wool.
This is the simplest floor covering and its processing requires a special system. In the processing of felt, the natural characteristics of wool are used (an example is the wrapping of its own fibers, due to humidity and pressure).
The various types of Iranian felt, in every part of the country, hold a hidden meaning, whose abstract and symbolic forms and colors taken from nature constitute a slice of popular artistic cultures.
Felt, in Asia and especially in Iran, has been used to produce - in very difficult conditions - clothes, headgear, curtains and carpets. The preparation of felt is still carried out using traditional methods. The artists, thanks to skilled hands in fixing drawings and images, give the worked felt a fresh soul.
The processing of felt is an industry that finds (through the use of each limb of the body) its realization not only thanks to a total love for the work done, but by means of elegant and pleasant movements of hands and legs, accompanied from acting - to remove the excessive fatigue caused by uninterrupted work - of delicate poems.
The method of processing felt has not undergone any change since antiquity and in the various places this is almost in the same form. However, the materials added to the wool may be different (in the Māzandarān pure water is added, while in Bākhtaran and in the Fārs soap is used). Felt processing is carried out around Gorgān, up to the cities of Bābol, Āmol, Rāmsar and Kalārdasht. The Turkmen tribes still rub the felt, in order to cover the roofs and woody structures of huts and yurts, and produce a precious type of felt, equipped with images, to be used as a carpet inside the huts. At one time, felt processing was also common in the Borujen area. Widespread, however, is still to the west: in the cities of Qasre Shirin, Sarpole Zahāb, Eslāmābāde Gharb and Kerend.
The main products of this industry, today, are: carpets, mats, clothes, Chuqā and the like.
The processing of felt is typical of the countryside areas of Ali Ābāde Katul, Semnān, Gonbade Kāvus, Kalāleh, Āq Qalā (Golestān), of the villages of Māzandarān, of Sabzevār and Kuchān (Razavi Khorāsān), of the Province of Lorestān and Bandare Torkeman .
The images and figures of the Turkmen felt are considered unrivaled in the Iranian art scene.
Turkmen felt was among the most important and well known in Iran. In the area of ​​Torkeman Sahrā, this is called with a local expression that means "covering for horses" and is used to drape the walls of the gazebos.
The best Turkmen felt is produced by the Yomut tribe and is still widespread in areas inhabited by its members.
Since the production of felt requires considerable physical power, this fabric is worked by men in most places in the country. The Turkmen felt is, however, the prerogative of women only.

 

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Craftmanship

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