Carpets

by R. S. Brinton

This tendency may be expressed as the intervention of the consumer. Scarcity of materials during the war, and the consequent obligation of carpet dealers to accept what they can get from manufacturers has, temporarily at any rate, modified the influence of the individual buyer of carpets upon carpet design and colour; but previous to the war it had become a factor to be reckoned with. There were, and are, many householders possessed of definite ideas upon arrangement of design, combination of colour, and harmony of decoration; and these ideas often germinate in suggestions or demands conveyed through the dealer to the manufacturer for single carpets of special colouring or arrangement. Often these suggestions prove to be more original than effective; but often they lead to effects both artistic and saleable.

This critical and creative spirit on the part of the individual is not, therefore, to be despised by the technical expert. It encourages novelty, and tends towards the evolution of new ideas in design and colour, and a liberation from an excessive dominance of the commercial standard.

From whatever source, however, the carpet manufacturer obtains his ideas for a design, it is by his expert staff, or by a professional carpet designer, that the ideas must be reduced to a practical form. And the technical preparation of designs for carpets is as full of difficulty as it is of interest. As has been indicated, the various makes of carpet differ from each other in many respects, including that of pitch, or number of threads or rows per inch. They all, however, have this in common, that, anatomically so to speak, as regards design, they are reducible to squares of colour. For this reason, ruled or point paper is always employed in the preparation of the design, and preferably paper ruled so as to represent the full size of the woven fabric. The designer, therefore, may not represent the curved outline of a leaf, for instance, with a bold sweep of his brush, but must paint it carefully, square by square, leaving actually an outline, which is more or less jagged according to the coarseness or fineness of the pitch. Here, at once we recognise a limitation which is apt to be irksome to the untrained designer of carpets. And what applies to form applies also to colour. There is no imperceptible graduation of shade to be achieved. Each particular square has to be of one colour and no more. Again, the designer must consider the number of colours he is allowed to employ, be they two or a hundred; and must know whether they can be used anywhere or only in restricted places in the pattern. Then there is the consideration of the repeat, with the mysteries of the straight match, reverse, drop and half drop; of the width of the fabric, body and border; and of the various adjustments of design required for carpets of different sizes, whether breadth goods, Chlidema squares, medallions, or seamless. Last, there is the real artistic imagination that is required; the art of seeing from one repeat how a complete carpet will look, of estimating the difference in appearance between the flat colour on the paper and the richness of the wool; of the variation in value of the same shade in collocation with this or with that. From the above it will be seen that the successful carpet designer has to be both craftsman and artist.

The finished coloured design passes into the hands of the colourist, who, whatever be the nature of the subsequent manufacturing process, will have the responsibility of selecting the coloured yarns to go into the fabric. These will normally, in the first instance, follow the main lines of the shades of the design paper. Then the travellers’ samples are made; and in some fabrics even, where pattern making is not practicable, whole carpets or sets of carpets are produced. Some idea can thus be obtained of the expenses to which carpet manufacturers are put in the preparation of new designs and colourings (which, in pre-war times, used to be done annually, and even more often) before a yard of carpet is sold to recoup them.

The carpet designer and colourist must have strict regard for the limitations of his medium, and in particular the limitations of pitch and of colour. He must know how to employ in the most effective manner, thirty shades or three, and what treatment is best for a floral design or an Oriental, in a fine or a coarse pitch.

Of course, the same laws of colour harmonies and contrasts hold good for the carpet colourist, as for the artist in any other branches of applied art; but the carpet artist has his own particular problems, such as those that have been indicated, and such as arise, for instance, from the fact that carpets have wool surfaces and lie on the floor, and therefore bear quite a different relation to the decoration of a room than curtains or ceilings.

Carpet colourings, apart from plains, may be analysed into self-colour effects, two-colour effects, and effects of three or more colours.

Self-colour or tone-on-tone effects adapt themselves more easily to a scheme of decoration than carpets containing contrasted colours. It seems to be a fact that the carpet is about the last thing to be thought of in a scheme of decoration. It need not be discussed whether it ought to be so or not. The walls, curtains, tiles, etc., are decided upon before the question of the colour of the carpet arises. In such a case, if a harmonious effect is to be ensured, there may be little choice left in the matter; and a self-coloured carpet may be either the easiest way out of the difficulty, or an artistic necessity. Certainly it is easier to furnish to; and, if it does mean a certain want of ambition in the decorative scheme, it is simple and satisfying.

Self-coloured carpets are also eminently suitable for small rooms, especially bed-rooms, on the one hand, and for theatres and music halls on the other, perhaps because one colour is more restful than several.

The number of shades used varies from two to five, according to the simplicity or boldness of the design. More than five are certainly undesirable, as it becomes impossible to get steps of shades without approaching a white at the top and a black at the bottom; and, indeed, some of the most effective self-colours are made in three shades only.