This portion of understanding Nepalese carpets deals with the important areas like different tools and equipments required for Tibetan weaving. Structure of the carpet, utility aspects of carpets and marketing.

Tools And Equipments:

The major tools and equipments used for making Tibetan Nepalese rugs carpets are:

·         Knife: It is used to cut the threads of the pile and the warp and the weft. Usually the blade terminates in a hook, which is used to help from the knot for the pile.

·         Beating comb: It consists of a series of splayed metal teeth set into a wooden or metal base. It is used to beat or tighten the weft threads against the finished row of knots, ensuring the compactness of the carpet.

·         Scissors: Scissors are used to clip the pile to an even level once the Tibetan rugs carpets have been completed. These days, electrical scissors are also available but in Nepal manual scissors are mostly used for clipping.

·         Mallet: It helps to beat down the rod with the loops and is made of wood.

·         Shuttle: It is used for the warp yarn.

·         Shed Stick: There are two shed sticks, the upper shed stick and the lower shed stick. Both of these shed sticks are long wooden rods, which are positioned in the shed, or counter shed to keep it open and to hold the two sets of warp threads apart.

·         Heedle Rod: It is a horizontal stick made of wood. Around this rod, the strings of the warp are wound. It is used for pulling the odd and even sets of warp threads apart.

·         Axis Rod: It is a metal rod round which intricate knots are made. The number of the axis rod to be used depends upon the number of the weavers working on the rugs and carpets. The pile height of the carpet is determined by the diameter of the axis rod.

·         Wedges: Wedges are made of wood. These can be pushed between the pegs and the warp beam if the tension needs adjustment. The wedges can be removed temporarily when the weaver wants to release the tension in order to move the woven section down and thus slide whole warp around the two beams to present a section of unwoven warp to the weaver.

Structure:

All rugs and Tibetan carpets, whether they are oriental or others, Whether they are machine woven, hand woven or tufted, consist principally of four parts. Viz. warp weft, selvedge and pile. These have direct relation with the loom and play an important role in the formation of carpet.

Warp and Weft:

The warp is the combination of the strands of yarn running lengthwise from top to bottom of a carpet, culminating in the fringes at either ends or it can also be defined as the combination of threads stretched between the two extremities of the looms, around which the knots which form the pile are tied. The warp is the strongest part of the carpet, because, when a carpet is being woven the warp is under tension, much like the suspension cable on a suspension bridge.