Setting
Kerman lies on a high desert plain at about 1,750 m, with the Ganj Ali Khan complex, bathhouse and bazaar at the centre of the old town.
Why this place matters for craft
Pateh is the craft most closely identified with Kerman province and is usually described as a domestic tradition of women's needlework worked in coloured wool on a felted or woven ground. Carpet weaving in the city has a long export history, and nineteenth-century workshop production is well recorded in trade literature.
Quarters, bazaars and workshops
| Area | What is there |
|---|---|
| Ganj Ali Khan bazaar | Historic core with craft retail in and around the complex. |
| Vakil bazaar section | Textile and needlework stalls; pateh sold in a range of qualities. |
What to look for on an object
- Pateh — Chain and stem stitching in wool on a plain ground; the back shows carried threads, not a printed outline.
- Kerman carpet — Curvilinear design with a soft handle; check that the pattern is knotted, not printed on the pile.
These notes are for learning to look, not for authentication. No description here certifies an object, its age or its origin.
Practical notes
- Small pateh panels are the common tourist item; large covers are slow work and priced accordingly.
- Ask whether the design was drawn for the piece or traced from a standard pattern.
- Workshop addresses, bazaar hours and market days change; confirm locally before travelling.
Season: Spring and autumn; winter nights are cold on the plateau.
Used in these crafts
A hand-embroidered wool textile from Kerman in which coloured silk or wool threads are worked in dense chain and satin stitching over a woollen ground, typically in a limited palette against a natural or dyed field.
A hand-knotted pile textile woven across Iran in city workshops, village looms and pastoral camps, distinguished by regional structure, palette and design vocabulary.
The Iranian tradition of decorating copper, brass and silver vessels with small chisels struck by hammer, working the metal into line, ground and relief.
A patterned Iranian brocade woven with supplementary wefts, historically in silk and wool, associated above all with Yazd and Kerman.