Weaving

In some old village houses, even now you can still see the ornate patterned towels with which the peasants decorated the walls, the "red corner", mirrors, portraits. Women’s aprons, hemlines and sleeves of shirts, sundresses, skirts were decorated with woven patterns. In the old days, the bride presented the groom with patterned towels at the wedding, bread and salt were brought to the honored guests on the same rich towel. The tablecloths that covered the table on holidays were elegant. All these things were woven by the women themselves on wooden homemade looms.

The design of the loom was invented in ancient times. The first thing you pay attention to is the sidewalls of the machine and two rollers. One of the rollers of the machine — the navoy — is used for winding the warp threads into it, the other for sewing the finished fabric. Both rollers are installed in the sidewalls of the machine. All the warp threads between the rollers must be threaded through the eyelet holes. The eyes are formed from thread loops threaded into each other. After remaking, the warp threads must be taken into a comb (called a berdo) inserted into a frame called a batan. The batan is attached to the sidewalls freely and therefore can lean back and forth. In addition to the rollers for the warp threads and for the finished fabric, as well as the rollers supporting the straps, the machine has two auxiliary rollers. The base passes through the first one, and the finished fabric passes through the second one. There is also a shuttle — this is a narrow ruler slightly shorter than the width of the machine, with the ends cut out with a dovetail.

Nowadays, the loom has become a rarity, and the artisanal craft of the weaver is a family tradition.

Among all the peasant utensils, spinning wheels are the most "animated". People composed proverbs, sayings, riddles about spinning wheels and spinning.

"The lazy spinneret doesn't even have a shirt for herself."
"What Masha strained, the mouse stole."
"A man does not spin, but does not go shirtless; but a woman does spin, but does not wear two."
"Strands, girl, don't be lazy, don't reach for the bench!".
"God does not give a spinning wheel, but a shirt."
"I'm sitting on a lime tree, looking through a maple tree, shaking a birch tree" (spinning).
"Five brothers are running along the road, but they are dry; five brothers are standing under the window, but they are wet" (spinning).

The spinning wheels decorated with carvings and paintings were given as a wedding present and passed down by inheritance. Even when a part of the painting disappeared from time to time or the blade to which the tow was attached split, the hostess did not want to part with the spinning wheel for anything.

The most archaic in peasant culture are the root spinning wheels.


A root spinning wheel is a spinning wheel made from a single piece of wood with a root.

First, they chose a suitable tree, for example, a spruce. The rhizome was dug with a shovel and cut down so that one root remained with the trunk. The rest of the roots were cut right next to the trunk. A future spinning wheel was cut out of such a blank with an axe. The work was completed with knives, chisels and chisels.

In the peasant environment, there were carved and painted spinning wheels. In the northern regions of Western Siberia, carved spinning wheels were most often found, with ornaments on them – squares, triangles, circles, vortex sockets, etc. In ancient times, they symbolized the sun, thunder, moon and stars, but over time they lost their meaning and turned into ordinary jewelry.

Painted spinning wheels were common in the southern regions. They were usually painted with oil paints, most often in red and green colors. The ornament on such a spinning wheel is flowers, often gathered in buds, branches with leaves, and sometimes birds.


A self-spinning wheel (spinning wheel-"Dutch") is a mechanical spinning wheel with a foot drive.

In the XVIII century foot-operated self-spinning wheels appeared in Russia. They have been widely used in peasant life since the middle of the XIX century. The self-spinning machine consists of a mill, a wheel, a spinning device under the wheel and a foot drive.

Carpet is a dense woven product made of yarn of various kinds, used to cover floors, walls, tables, sofas and other surfaces for decorative and insulation purposes.

D.I. Dahl gives such a definition of carpet: "Carpet is a thick, woven floor, half-wall; patterned, usually woolen bedding. Carpets can be smooth and sheared or dug; there are felt, printed, and woolen ones." In Russian folk tales, the magic carpet is the same thing as boots, walking boots, a sword and a self-made tablecloth.

The first mention of Siberian carpets dates back to the XVII century. This craft was brought by people from Central Asia — Bukharians. The description of such a product was set aside in the second half of the eighteenth century by A.N. Radishchev. In the XIX century this craft has become very popular in the Tobolsk province, and especially in the vicinity of Tyumen (that's why many art historians call the carpet "Tyumen"). Carpets were also woven in the south of the province, on the territory of modern Ishim, Omutinsky, Golyshmanovsky, Uporovsky and Berdyuzhsky districts.

The Siberian carpet had a special style — bright flowers and green leaves on a black and yellow background, while the carpets of one area did not look like carpets from another. For example, the "Golyshman" carpet was a geometric pattern, and the "Berdyuzhsky" carpet resembled a factory one.

Carpets were sold at fairs, celebrations, they decorated the dwelling, covered the sleigh (as in the painting by V.I. Surikov "The Capture of the snow town"). There were large carpets — wall, floor; small ones — for decorating chests and benches.

The craftswoman Vasilisa Semyonovna Vikulova occupies an honorable place in the history of the Siberian carpet. In 1900, a carpet made by her received the highest award at an exhibition in Paris. In the 1920s, Ivan Oveshkov drew attention to the Siberian carpet. He opened an artel of craftswomen in the village of Kamenka, which is considered the birthplace of Tyumen carpet making. Later, several carpet factories appeared in the Tyumen region. The Ishim carpet factory has survived to our time, where carpets are woven to this day.