Old traditional Kashmir carpet designs becoming digitised in India

To safeguard the cultural heritage of traditional woven carpets, the Handicrafts and Handloom Department in Kashmir, India is creating digital copies of around 1,000 traditional carpet designs.

Kashmir carpets woven by skilled craftspeople have unique patterns, knots and dimensions. Designs are recorded manually on talim paper in the form of coded instructions that provide colour, knot counts and other information required to re-create traditional carpet patterns. However, over time, the talim paper documents are known to deteriorate. The solution to preserve them is to convert the designs to digital form. So far, the Indian project has digitised 500 carpet designs out of an estimated 1,000. The designs are available to view at the Indian Institute of Carpet Technology (IICT).

The Director of the ICCT, Zubair Ahmad, says that these preserved traditional designs can be printed out and used as inspiration for modern carpet designs. He suggests that motifs, colours, size and patterns can be modified to create new unique modern designs.

Every year, carpet manufacturers launch new carpet styles and patterns. Carpet designers often take older patterns and update them for modern design tastes. This is why it is important that records are kept on traditional carpet designs.

Hand woven Kashmir carpets are colourful and typically feature vibrant patterns inspired by natural flower and plant shapes. However, purchasing these carpets for North Wales home or offices is very expensive. A more affordable alternative is to find a carpet or rug whose design is based on traditional carpets.