Thursday, 14 April 2011

Traditional Craft: Textiles

Traditional Craft: Textiles: "Anamica Lal"

The Making of a Rug

Gathering
The first step in making a rug is gathering the raw materials. Traditionally most tribal rugs are made of wool sheared from the sheep twice a year, in the spring and in the autumn. Generally the wool from the spring shearing is considered superior and is used for making most rugs, bags, and clothing. Wool from the autumn shearing or from dead animals is less fine and is used mainly for making felts or tent fabrics. In some areas, tribal weavers also use cotton. Although cotton is actually more stable than wool, it is less durable and often more expensive than wool, so its use is limited. Finally, a much smaller number of rugs are made using silk, which is typically purchased from traders who bring it from manufacturing centers far away from the tribal areas.
The oldest known hand-knotted oriental rug was excavated from the Altai Mountains of Central Asia near Pazryk in 1949. It was found in The Pazyryk carpeta semi-frozen Scythin burial mound. This rug dates from the 5th century B.C. and is called "The Pazryk Carpet". Today the rug is in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. The carpet is sophisticated with floral, geometric, and pictorial designs. This legendary piece is excellent testimony to the durability of the weaver's art. Few other rugs are known to have survived more than 500 years. Many of those are displayed in museums around the world. However, it isn't uncommon to find rugs over 100 years old that are still in usable condition, and some that, even today, are being walked on by great-great grandchildren of the original owners.

hroughout the Middle East and Central Asia, The art of weaving rugs has been practiced and revered since ancient times. Many cultural historians think these rugs, in addition to having beauty and practicality, also reflected very practical concerns of day to day life. One thought is that hand knotting carpets with a pile began among nomadic peoples as a means of imitating the texture and warmth of animal pelts. Whatever factors may have contributed to its initial development, the art of rug making quickly took on a central role in the aesthetic and historic identity of entire regions.

Yarn
The first preparation step is to clean the fibers. This is done by washing and combing (or carding) Spinning Woolthe fibers several times. Once clean, the raw fibers are spun into threads using a weighted object called a spindle. When a twist of the raw wool or cotton is attached to the spindle and the spindle is spun and dropped, it pulls the fibers out of the bunch and winds them into a long thread. After several threads have been made, they are in turn spun together to form a yarn. Typically two or three threads will be used to form a yarn. Yarn is normally spun in the opposite direction from the threads so that the fibers will bind together more tightly.

Dyeing
After the yarn is spun, it is treated with a substance that allows dye to be absorbed and fixed into its fibers, most commonly alumand iron sulfate. Once the yarn has been treated it is ready to be dyed. Traditionally the dyes used are made from natural local plants. For example, the madder plant yields a red dye, milkweed and buckthorn produce yellow, dyer’s woad and indigo produce blue, while browns and blacks can be made using walnut shells or iron filings. Since the late nineteenth century, some tribal weavers have also been using factory-produced chemical dyes. Most yarn is dyed in batches. Sometimes when the dye runs out in the middle of the dyeing process, the batch is finished with another dye lot. This produces yarns with slightly different colors that, when woven together, produce a chromatic shading effect called abrash, which is greatly admired by many Western collectors.



Weaving
Once the yarns are spun and dyed, the weaving process begins. First a set number of yarns are stretched in close parallel rows around a wooden frame called a loom. These yarns, called warps, determine the basic size and shape of the rug. Alternate warps are then attached to horizontal bars called heddles. When the heddles are raised and lowered, they create a space between the warps that is called the shed. Another yarn, called a weft, is attached to a weighted object, called a shuttle, and passed back and forth through the shed. Alternating which warps are raised and which are lowered produces a fabric of interlocked yarns that is called a plainweave. Sometimes each weft will be beaten down on top of the previous one to create a fabric in which only the wefts are visible. This type of fabric is called a tapestry weave (or kilim weave.) Other times the wefts will be wrapped around the warps according to a set pattern to create a more textured fabric that is known as a sumak weave (or brocade weave.) Finally, the weaver can tie extra bits of yarn to the warps between one or more rows of wefts. The extra bits of yarn, which can be tied in either symmetric or asymmetric knots opening either to the left or to the right, stick up above the warp and weft foundation to create a pile weave. In some cases, several different weaving techniques may be employed together to produce a rug that has a variety of textures and visual effects.

http://www.flooringamericatally.com/rugs/HowRugsareMade.html
http://www.pakpersianrugs.co.uk/
http://www.internetrugs.com/blog/how-oriental-rugs-are-made-today/

Thursday, 31 March 2011

Rammed Earth in Modern Buildings

Earth House by BCHO Architects





BCHO have created this underground house in Seoul, Korea. Rammed earth is what makes the exterior walls which are imbedded into the ground. All rooms are adjacent to each other and open directly to the earth filled courtyard. 


The earth used in the rammed earth walls is all from the site excavation. 


A pine tree was cut down from the site and sliced into thick discs which were cast into the concrete walls of the courtyard. This is to help during the decaying process and will encourage new plants and new life.


The rammed earth walls give the walls a natural and rustic feel whilst making the house sustainable.






Rammed Earth Homes by Paul Weiner
Paul Weiner is an architect from DBC projects. He has had many projects which he uses rammed earth as a material.


Here are some images of a house in Tuscon Mountains: 
Rammed earth in the walls is very sensitive to its surroundings because the building blends in with the use of colour and texture.

Modern Napa Valley House
This rammed earth napa valley house is property of Tatwina and Richard Lee. It blends in with the natural surroundings.




Westlake Hills, Texas House


This home is in Texas was designed by the architect Lou Kimball. The rammed walls are 2ft thick which make the house energy efficient. This building is an example of how versatile rammed earth really is.

Rammed Earth

Rammed earth is an ancient building method which has seen a recent revival as people are more encouraged to use natural building methods in a search for the perfect eco friendly ome. Rammed earth buildings are found on every continent except Antarctica due to the soil being common across the world. Methods of creating a rammed earth wall are simple and there are many benefits of them, for example:

  • simple to construct
  • incombustible
  • thermal
  • sustainable
  • strong
  • durable
Although there are some disadvantages to rammed earth because it is so labour-intensive to construct without machinery. If a part of a wall isn't constructed properly or maintained, water damage is common. In recent years machinery is used called power rammers.

Rammed earth gives a gorgeous smooth finish which is usually a mixture of different earthy tones. This mixture of colours usually come in horizontal stripes due to the different types of soil being rammed.




Modern Cob Houses

This is the Lyon house on a riverside which has replaced a seventies concrete bungalow. It has won the 'best vernacular building' in the LABC 2008 awards in the south west region.



The walls have a newel lime finish and the doors are bespoke oak.




Caday Cob House


This is a newly built cob house in Devon. The house has been designed to provide an excellent use of space and has considered environmental considerations. This is just one of the newly built cob houses which are incoporating many different traditional crafts to ensure that they are environmentally friendly.




All rooms are finished to a high standard, including underfloor heating and porcelain and oak flooring. Oak doors, oak windows and hand made iron mongery finished with a thatched roof.







I especially like the staircase which has been shaped from the cob itself, which runs seamlessly from the wall. These stairs are covered in porcelain tiles to ensure that they stay flat and safe.


Sunday, 27 March 2011

Farnham Castle Restoration

UCA has been commissioned to create an interactive artistic portrayal of the history of Farnham Castle as part of a major restoration project.

University staff and students will renovate a space and help to re-design the interior of an unused storage area in the castle grounds to create a "Heritage in Action" room complete with a public gallery space and animation walk-through to show the 900 year history of the castle. The room will also make use of paintings, hands-on exhibits, interactive displays, models and photographs.

I was lucky enough to get up close and personal with some of the locally made elements going into Farnham Castle. I went down to our university workshop where i saw the making of the handle for the very large doors. I was able to get an insight in to how he developed his designs and ideas to the final product being made at this time. 

 These prototypes were to test the twisting of the steel for the large door handles that would take the many people walking through the castle everyday. They Needed to be long lasting and robust. 






Tight twisted steel pieces using different sizes. Creating different eye catching and interesting effects.








 Different finishes were also played around with, including, buffing, painting and glossing the steel.








The door handle is to sit on a thin piece of steel with steel bolts welded on, heated and hammered flat. Giving it an interesting and textured finish.





The technique of the bolts being hammered flat was also used on the ends of the door handle, giving it extra detail.