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A Uzbek Coin or Salt Bag

Coin bags or salt bags in the Central Asian area are almost invariably shaped like the bag to the left. I was attracted to the shape because it echoed Scythian felt containers from a thousand years previous and the shape is very useful.

The two valuable things a person carries with them in a nomadic lifestyle are their money and salt. The last thing a nomad would want to have happen would be to drop their bag and have the contents of it spill out. Thus the attenuated neck of this design. It is virtually impossible to get anything to spill out of this type of bag (and very difficult to get anything out on purpose as well).

For the embellishment, I relied on very specific Uzbek (Uzbekistan is located, as part of a conglomerate of small countries, just north of Afganistan) motifs. The most ubiquitous of those is the hooked sun disc, center. Placed above the hooked sun disc is a stylized tree of life and there are six stylized birds surrounding the sun disc. The 'chain' border surrounds all the motifs. The beaded fringe, also done by hand, actually has a purpose on these bags. The chaotic movement of the beads of the fringe, when handled or moved, is thought to distract the 'evil eye' and keep the contents safe. Likewise, surrounding the entire bag face with continuous embroidery is thought to give protection. The center motifs would've indicated the owners tribe by both their shape and their color.

I created this particular bag in 2001 for the Baronial Arts & Sciences competition. When researching it, I found extant textiles (mainly carpets) from Uzbekistan and lifted the designs for the motifs from them. There are a couple of large tribes that reside in Uzbekistan, the Lakai being most prominent among them but the Lakai style and colors were not to my taste so I went with colors I did like. When I contacted the Anahita Gallery, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and sent them a photo of the above bag, I asked them to take a critical look at it and see if I had managed to get close to the 16th century and if the embroidery and motifs were correct. They wrote back that I had gotten as close as anyone could, given that textiles from that time period are very rare. They also pointed out that my embroidery, while still Uzbek in design, had a distinctly Chinese style to it. Which was a happy accident as, during the 16th century, Uzbekistan was under Chinese rule.

The bag itself is made of fulled black wool. A single applique of fulled red wool, in the shape of a hooked sun disc, is attached center. Overall, the face of the bag is embroidered in DMC #5 perl cotton in several colors. The beaded fringe is made from DMC #3 perl cotton and glass beads. The tassles are attached to hand-made three-ply cord. The tassles are made from DMC #5 perl cotton and the three-ply cord is made from DMC floss.

A map of the current configuration of Central Asia.

 

Other Projects: Uzbek Bag - Moon Face Bag - Rabbit Bag - Spider Bag - Spoon Bag

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