Quarterly Scientific-Research Goljaam

Motifs pass through the mental filters of different people. The time and mind canals govern key roles in forming the designs. Most of the carpets’ designs and motifs are the products of the cultural exchanges among different nations and races. Cultural and social products such as stories, dialects, traditions, customs etc. are exchanged among different nations and races, meanwhile get local characteristics; motifs are also not apart from this formula. They are also modified and changed in the process of movement from one location to another one. Each motif can be considered as the offspring of the social needs of its community in a certain period of time. The cursive designs of Heris also follow such formula. The organic and urban designs (i.e. Shah Abbassi medallion design) have been changed into a geometrical design by the carpet weavers and consequently innovative visual models have been introduced to visual culture of the carpets as the result of gradual mental-oriented changes and modification of those designs. The relationship between some motifs in Heris carpets such as: “Gobak”, “Lalak”, “Toosbagha” etc. and mythological elements is significant. The mental-oriented weavers of this field have created a collection of new motifs by utilizing simile and abstraction.

Iran’s carpet owes its basic part of artistic aspect to its own patterns and motifs. The transference of these patterns on woven carpets is done in different methods including “plan handkerchiefs”. Plans handkerchief acts as a mediator between the mind of the designer artist and the hands of the weaver artist. These patterns which are placed on cloths, besides their innate role as models for carpet weaving, increase the weavers’ designing and imaginative faculty and by giving variety to carpet productions of the region, play an important role in preservation and continuance of motifs as worthwhile heritage. The extension of new checkered plans has reduced the appearance of plan-handkerchiefs in Heris carpet weaving culture, and it has intensely reduced the variation of carpets’ patterns and motifs. 

East Azerbaijan is one of the most important centers of production and trade of hand-woven carpets in Iran. Several cities in this province participate in the production of this artic-industrial commodity. Heriz is one of these cities that has been well-known for weaving precious and beautiful rugs. Considering the unique characteristics of design, motif, color and texture, Heriz rugs are of great fame worldwide. The main purpose of the present study is to thoroughly examine samples of contemporary rug designs of the region and to identify their design structure. It also attempts to find answers to the questions of how these rugs are designed and what their patterns are. Subsequently, it scrutinizes the main features of rugs in this region and introduces and explores their design structure. Finally, particular styles dominating the design of Heriz rugs are discussed. The study is a self-explanatory one and the collected data was analyzed qualitatively. The data for the study was mainly collected through field studies and in some few cases library references have also been used. The study revealed that there has been and are fixed principles and structures in the design, color and texture of contemporary Heriz rugs and currently rugs in Heriz region are woven according to them.