Wool-felting carpet is a real art which was born many hundreds years ago. This kind of craft is mostly typical to nomadic people whose main occupation was cattle breeding. The sheep and camels gave not only some products but also a lot of wool. In the layers of permafrost of Pazyrkskiye mounds on the Altai Mountains there are still kept the wool-felted carpets made in the V century BC.
Felt production is a complicated process which requires specific skills. It consists of several stages: wool preparation, wool layout on the mat, hot water injection, ramming and readymade felt receipt. The wool-felted carpets, very durable, warm and soft, were used in the nomads’ homes from the ancient times. They put them on the ground and hang on the walls of prairie tents and yurts to protect themselves from the frosts and rains, dampness and heats. Later, when the most part of nomads began leading a sedentary life, they cover the floors with these carpets, used them as the soft beds and the most beautiful as the blankets.
One of the centers of felt carpets production is Kazakhstan: within the middle of the XIX century to color the carpets the Kazakhs used the dyes which were boiled from different plants, roots, and mineral salts. Beginning from the second part of the XIX century they start using imported into Kazakhstan the aniline dyes, which gradually replaced the natural ones.
Today the main value of such felt carpets is their decoration. Amazingly decorated carpets are made in Middle Asia by Kazakhs, Kyrgyzes, Turkmen, Uzbeks, and in Transcaucasia – by Georgians and Armenians. Felt products art decoration is an integral part of the decorative arts of many nations and their cultural heritage. People from numerous countries (Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Bashkiria, Kalmykia, Chechnya, etc.) for many centuries worked on their typical, traditional compositional techniques and patterns. The prints on the carpets were created and changed over the centuries.
The creative thought of the masters and craftsmen who added something new and interpreted according to their taste the well-known carpet designs led to the great variety of ornamental and composite solutions. In general felt carpets are divided into two big groups: with wool-felted pattern and mosaic pattern. The mosaic pattern is not so colorful as the wool-felted one, but on the other hand it is more clear and graphic.