06/09/2007
Woven articles of household use

comitech

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The other large category of woven materials includes the household effects. In this category many examples are salvaged which allow the creation of a complete picture of the operation of the home but also the specific needs defined by the societal, geographical and anthropological factors. There is a large variety of floor coverings, rugs, blankets, flokates, coverings for the wall, the fireplace and the entrance, pillows, carpets, ixramia, bantes, towels, etc. This category also includes woven articles made for the animals, the tsolia, tagaria, xararia (carrying sacks), disakia, taistaria etc.
Dominating in the types of household effects:
a) velentzes: a heavy bed cover and bedding, a thick woven material with the technique of pouilli di moultou on its decorated surface. It was required to undergo the water treatment. During its weaving the strings of the woof protrude creating a type of sparse floko. They are especially warm, the primary winter bedding of the home.
Usually they had three panels, the two side ones were decorated while the middle one was monochrome. It may be monochrome but also decorated. Decorative colours used were reds, yellows, greens. The possibilities depended on the means available e.g. loulaki, tree leaves. It was a woven article of great significance indicative of social affluence and recognition. Warp 1.5 – 2 kilos per panel, 12 kilos woof. Initially it was family bedding and in times of wealth it covered the stone.
2) ixrami: as a word it originates from the Turkish mihrab the Muslim prayer rug. It was brought by the Ottomans. Initially it was adopted by the ruling class and later by the subjects. There are various types of ixrami: aggona, for the entrance, for the head.
a) ixrami aggona: bedding for the sitting area. Two similar woven articles were placed around the fireplace. The largest portion of the population up to recent years slept on these. The bedding for the sitting area is square or rectangular, while their interior is usually monochrome. The festive ones have many patterns with an inside border. They vary in density and patterns are personal choices. At the end of the 19th century there is bedding with garlands. The bedding with the garland underwent the water beating treatment in order to make it thicker for use in the winter. This advanced type did not negate the older types, it just co-existed with them.
b) head ixrami: it was worn by women in the winter thrown over their backs. It was decorated with geometrics and mixed elements. Blue for everyday use, white and red for festive occasions; its use declines since 1970.
3) pillows: placed on beds in the rooms in a horizontal line usually four for each, a basic element of everyday use that characterized the home interior. They were usually 1-1.10 m. in length and 40cm. in width and woven with a wool or cloth warp, cotton yarn. The yarn of the pillow is prepared during the warping in order to achieve the required width and the desired density of the fabric. The density is determined by the density of the comb which is regular for the pillow and by the thickness of the yarns of the warp and the woof. The warp has four heads, the woof monochrome or coloured is spun with a distaff. The reverse side is woven striped on the monochrome fabric or monochrome on the everyday ones and when the colours are not sufficient. 8 pillows correspond to one bedding. Initially they were large and dark blue or brown in the natural colour of wool, of batalliou with sparse thin coloured stripes. Their number gradually increased by economically affluent people. It was stabilized at four for the back of the aggona. Poor people received 2 or 3 and even 4 pillows as dowry and later they completed their numbers once they were able.
4) berntes: woven rug. Two types: a) berntes of the door: vertical use on the door. As decoration of the arch, it refers to Middle-eastern weaving. It is woven in three panes with a woof of a different colour usually red, in the middle with a warp and woof of a different colour, usually blue. Stable aesthetics but gradually its use becomes limited.
b) fireplace berntes: horizontal weave, décor. It is divided into two portions one red and one blue (sometimes green) with a distinct scale as to the arch.
c) banta: variation without an arch
5) kilimi: it is strewn on the inside of the home on the floor, distinct from the rug. They used it on the floor in cases where they sat on it. Its construction and décor is Middle-eastern in origin. Its expansion is connected with the building of homes with wood flooring. The homes up to the beginning of the century had dirt floors, which required thick fabrics and so they used monochrome kilimi in the colour of sheep made of goat’s wool and sheep’s wool. Each family that became affluent obtained them in sizes of large rooms, taking elements and adopting patterns and designs, which are reproduced in the local aesthetics and technical version.
6) rugs
7) towels
8) home embroidery.
9) tsolia: accessory woven articles for various uses e.g. for the animals.
10) tagaria: a type of woven purse, used in transport but also for daily practical needs, e.g. transport of food to their work.