THANAKRA Tapis et Textiles des Tribus du Maroc Objets de l’Afrique rurale Moroccan Tribal Rugs and Textiles Artifacts from rural Africa 170 bis rue de Grenelle 75007 Paris France - Tél: 33 (0)1 40 62 98 88

DIMENSIONS

Rugs dimensions are approximate and quoted to the nearest 2 inches. One must always keep in mind that those weavings are neither industrial nor trade pieces. They are made at home, using mostly wooden home made looms. The tribal weaving is not an exact science, is far for ISO standards. Where it is a must for "artisanat"/trade weaving to be absolutely quadrangular, here it is almost an alien concept. Hence the width of rugs may vary a little from beginning to end, what might then be seen as a additionnal sign of authenticity, and not as a defaut. We therefore indicate the largest width when quoting one.

COLORS
There 4 possible types of colors:

natural : those are undyed wools.They may be white, brown black or grey

vegetable : the dying material comes from a plant (stem, roots, leaves,etc...). The most known are madder and indigo

animal : cocheneal and purple belong to that category

artificial : they are all the colors produced by the chemical industries

The first three type have been praticed since very old times. The fourth one was first invented in the middle of the 19th century by german chemical petrol industries; it then conquered the world very quickly and was easily adopted by populations who so far had had to harvest, dry , crush and cook mostly vegetable materials that produced a fairly limited palette of colors. These new colors were not however as solid as the old ones

Regarding tribal Morocco, artificial colors entered the country early and in late 19th century were widely used to dye wools intended for rugs; hence the little number of vegetable dyed rugs left today. This practice however did not expand as easily with the weaving of tribal costumes that retained vegetable colors until the middle of the 20th century in many places.