Qashqai
Qashqai Rugs: Joyful Renderings In Bright Colors & Bold Designs
With its graphic bold designs and vivid, joyful colors, a Qashqai rug can brighten up any space. Qashqais are in great demand by rug lovers for the superb quality of the workmanship and the exciting dynamism of their bold designs, which, though seemingly wild and capricious are always based on traditional templates passed down through generation of weavers.
Qashqai rugs are made by the Qashghai tribeswomen, an ancient tribe of pastoral nomads from the Fars province in southwest Iran. The Qashghai were spontaneous but highly talented weavers and the rugs they produce are among the most beautiful and popular nomadic rugs made today and are in high demand all over the world.
Construction Of The Rug
The Qashghai tribe weave several different types of rugs but they are always all-wool construction with heavy ribbing on the reverse side and well-balanced, clevery articulated colors. The wool that is used is always the best quality available. Weavers use the asymmetric knot and the finished rugs have deeply depressed warps and red wefts. The edges are usually finished with a barber-pole selvage. These rugs are heavy duty and and excellent choice for busy areas of the house where there is a lot of coming and going through the day.
Hallmark Colors & Designs
Red is the most prominent color used in these rugs and though different rugs may use different shades, the tonalities of the shades are always very strong, deep and vibrant. Other colors are used are indigo blue, yellow or classic gold.
The hallmark feature of Qashqai rugs is their medallion layout. Medallions could be hexagon shaped or regular diamond shaped or they could appear as 3 vertically connected diamonds. An unique feature of the Qashqai medallions is that sometimes a smaller sized square or diamond shape featured inside the medallion is shown surrounded by 4 hooks. In some Qashqais, this feature is seen in all-over motifs as well.
Some Qashqai rugs have totem heraldic centers, filler ornaments and geometric patterns repeated along the borders. The motifs include several various of the crab, floral designs or a menagerie of domestic animals. Some rugs have traditional depictions of the ‘Hershang’.
One of the more unique Qashqai rug designs is the ‘Hebatlu’. This featured a large centerpiece woven in white and four identical motifs in each corner of the rugs. The corner motifs are the same shape, design and color as the central medallion but the size is sometimes kept the same and sometimes it is made a little smaller to accommodate the rest of the fill-in pattern.
One of the reasons behind the soaring popularity of these rugs is because Qashqai weavers are very proud of their tradition and will never compromise on quality for the sake of expediency. This diligent attention to detail is what makes these rugs highly prized by rug experts who recognize the value of perfection.