Baluch

Style of rugs woven by the Baloch people living in Afghanistan and eastern Iran. The patterns often incorporate repeated motifs diagonally arranged across the field, or a maze of intricate latch-hooked forms. Prayer rugs may contain a field filled with the leaves and stems of a stylized tree, with geometric small plants in the spandrels. Baluchi rugs frequently have long aprons at both ends, decorated with stripes and bands of brocading. The color scheme of older rugs is a dark combination of reds, browns, blues, tans, and white. The fibers are typically wool, goat and camel hair, cotton for whites, and in some cases a few knots of silk. The knotting is customarily asymmetrical. The rugs vary greatly in quality, the better ones usually being ascribed to the Khorasan province of Iran. Baluchi rugs are frequently classed with the products of the Turkmen but show little relationship to them.