Comparing old Gabbeh with new Gabbeh
The goats that were woven by the Qashqais in the past were self-colored, that is, wool made from sheep without any color change, which was used in the weaving of the gobe. In the past, Gabbehs were gray, white, and black. And sometimes it was woven in a checkerboard pattern with gray, white and black colors, in which the events and happenings of each day were reflected for the weaver, if that day was a good day for the weaver, one of Gabbeh’s squares would be white and if that day for The weaver had a bad day. One of Gabbeh’s four houses was black, and sometimes several white or black colors, or one in the middle, were seen in Gabbeh.
But over time, the change that took place in Gabbeh and the Gabbehs were colored with plant dyes derived from the surrounding nature. The wool was woven by hand and woven on horizontal and earthen beams. And they did not weave anything except the tribes of Gabbeh. Gabbeh’s design was entirely subjective and geometric in style. It limited the outline of the design, and most of the designs and patterns were repeated symmetrically along the length and width of the gabbe. But over time, with the advent of plant dyes, plant dyes have been replaced by chemical dyes, and spinning machines have been used instead of hand-spinning. The accuracy and sensitivity of the quality of the wool was also lost, and the old designs gave way to the new designs. The Gabbehs were less woven mentally, and new designs were used at the suggestion of the market. The marginalized gabbe was woven into new designs without margins. With the change in Gabbeh, its original beauty diminished, and pictorialism replaced the old designs, and the designs became cobbled. Today, Gabbeh’s designs are more like a painting and at the same time have their own beauty, although they do not have the originality of the old Gabbehs, but its market, although short-lived, flourished, but soon lost its market at the same rate. Because during the boom of the market, profiteers failed to take advantage of the high demand and the use of substandard materials and the sharp decline in quality and other reasons. In general, the reasons for this decline are as follows:
1- Market saturation and use of substandard materials in the markets that were offered to the market.
2- Loss of weaving creativity
3- Greed and greed of traders
4- A new development in the Gabbeh plan, the entry of the Cubist plan, which replaced the original and old plans, and …
