Bedouin Weaving
Bedouin women are still very actively involved in weaving. For thousands of years women have followed the same process of weaving, and their weaving has resulted in rugs for the floor, rugs to cover the mattress type pads in the sitting area of the tent, cushion covers, bags for storing grain and clothes, saddle bags for camels and donkeys, and cradles to carry their children on their backs.
Camel/Donkey bag and floor carpets
Bedouin tent and women weaving long tent cloth
Bedouin still weave the long narrow rugs that when sewn together form the outside wall and top of the tent. A tent is called bait esh-sha’ar, or literally “house of hair”. [ Photo] In late fall when the harvest is in (because many Bedouin work as laborers in the wheat and barley harvest), and before the rainy season, the Bedouin women set up their looms and start the process of weaving. A long rug one meter wide and four meters long will take the women more than two months to complete with several female family members working together. Weaving is very much a social activity with groups of women chatting, drinking tea and working on the rug.
Weaving is only the final stage in a long process of production. For both the Bedouin and villagers, shearing of the sheep and goats takes place in the spring after the animals have been washed. The villagers sell most of their sheep wool but some is kept as filling for their mattresses used for sitting and sleeping. On the other hand, the Bedouin have a lot of goats and use the coarse hair from their goats for weaving the thick tent rugs.
Black and brown goats
One can see the Bedouin women walking around with their meghzal, or spindle used for spinning the yarn for their rugs. The spindle is constructed of a wooden staff on top of which is a small movable wheel with a hook that holds the spun yarn as it is wrapped around the shaft.
Bedouin women with spindle
Weaving of the tent cloth is done by the Bedouin women on a ground loom. The loom is constructed of very simple materials of sturdy sticks and stones. Two wooden sticks are pinned to the ground and the woolen yarn stretch between them while another stick is placed in the middle to separate the long warp threads. The woman sits cross-legged at the end of the ground loom and feeds the weft yarn attached to a stick back and forth between the twisted threads. The weaver gradually moves down the length of the rug and maintains the tightness of the threads. Dark colors are preferred. The traditional colors include deep reds, navy blues, greens, oranges and black.
Weaving loom set up for weaving tent cloths
The art of weaving is almost totally extinct among the village women of the plateau but the skill is still very much a common activity for the Bedouin women who make items for domestic use.