This blog contains information about the making of a charpoy. This is a kind of bed or cot often seen in the rural villages of India and in Pakistan. The bed is also called a charpai, a manja, a manjaa, a manji or a khartiya. There are other names for the beds. The bed frame traditionally was made of wood and it has four legs. The part of the bed you sleep on is made of rope that is woven. Modern day Charpoy are made of many different types natural and synthetic materials.
About a month ago, I needed a new bed. I was amazed at how expensive most new beds can be, even the matress itself can be expensive. I began to look around for alternatives. In the past I have made bed frames and they worked out great. however I wanted something more portable that could be put away when not in use. I began to look on the internet and I found many interesting cots. One of the cots I found was called a charpoy. It is a traditional Indian bed with a woven sleeping surface. For those of you who have seen my other blog on candy wrapper purses you might guess that I like woven things. I also like trying to figure out how things are made. That is how I figured out how to make a candy wrapper purse. Now I find that there are no real instructions that I can find for making a charpoy........I am pumped! I am ready to try to figure out how to make a charpoy. Maybe some of you can help me search for information. I was able to find a charpoy here in Atlanta at Patel Brothers. I purchased one and have been enjoying it for about a month. My charpoy has a strong metal frame with legs that fold. the sleeping surface is woven from a natural fiber rope. Please click the link above for info on the Patel Brothers. I was able to purchase my charpoy for less than 150.00$
The Frame
The first thing we will look at is how to make a charpoy frame . Classically the charpoy was made out of very strong wood from particular kinds of trees. Quite often the the legs were carved and were decorative. The 8 elements for the frame were put together using mortise and tenon joints. I will add more info here on the mortise and tenon joint. You can go on Youtube and type in mortise and tenon joint and some videos of the joint being made should come up. The mortise and tenon joint is very popular in furniture making because it is a very strong joint. In searching for information on how to make the frame I tried looking under rope beds and boy did I come up with very some interesting stuff. It seems that a kind of rope bed was very popular in the USA and in Europe in the 1800s ( going back to the medieval period). The 3rd picture below shows this kind of rope bed. This kind of rope bed was used with a mattress. and the rope went thru holes in the side of the bed. The bed rope was tightened with a large key type of object. While looking under rope bed I ran into a link for period rope bed. When I went to the site I was amazed because the the kind of beds shown there were very similar to the charpoy. The beds have a woven surface that is slept on directly. At the bottom you will see the rope tightening apparatus similar to the one seen on the charpoy. The gentleman got the idea not from India but from an old picture of a medieval man carrying what looks like a woven rope bed on his back ( see the picture below) I feel that this is an important website if you are interested in buliding a charpoy frame. On the site you will find info on building a basic rope bed. As part of the tightening apparatus he uses a dowel to wrap the ropes around. In the charpoy they would use rope wrapped around the side poles many times as the support for the tightening rope and the top of the woven area. The top surface of the bed is woven with a slightly different weave than seen on the charpoy the rope is wrapped around the frame one time. In the classic charpoy the rope would be wrapped around the frame 3 to 6 times making the weave much stronger. If you use the instructions to make the basic frame and change the 2 things I mentioned you should have a basic charpoy.
The weave
The frame gives the charpoy strength and the woven top surface also adds to the strength of the charpoy. This is the part I have found most difficult to figure out. The traditional charpoy is woven with a diagonal weave. I have found 3 sources on the internet to give you an idea of what is involved. Here is a Youtube video that shows a man weaving a charpoy.
If you look at all of this material you will see the weaver starts in one corner of the charpoy and goes to the opposite corner diagonal to it. He seems to do this over and over again to form the center of the weave and this is clearly shown in the video below. On my charpoy the woven part seems to be one rope. If you look at photo #6 and photo #7 , you will see how the weave is started and how it develops. Here is a link to a site where they are caning a chair using a diagonal weave. Unlike my charpoy there are 2 layers of weave, one on top and one on the bottom.
The straight weave
The diagonal weave seems to be a very common way of weaving a charpoy. however there seem to be other ways of weaving a charpoy. If you look at photo #8 and photo #9 ,you will see examples of the straight weave where the weaver weaves form top to bottom and from side to side. If you look along the sides of the weave you will see tiny loops. the loops are formed when the thread or rope is tied to the side rails of the charpoy. this appears to be similar to what you would see in macrame. look at photo#10, can you see the similarity? this lead me to look into macrame furniture. I came across the macrame chair. I found many beautiful chairs that had been woven using a combo crochet and macrame technique. please look at the photo #11 of the lounge chair, it has been woven using the above technique. The lounge chair is very similar to the the charpoy. If the above technique works on the lounge chair it should also be a good way to cover a charpoy frame. This technique can be learned best by purchasing a video to see how it is done. Here is a link to a macrame chair video.
I am working on learning the macrame chair technique and I am trying to figure out the diagonal weave technique. As I get more information and figure things out I will post them here on this blog.
The Frame
The first thing we will look at is how to make a charpoy frame . Classically the charpoy was made out of very strong wood from particular kinds of trees. Quite often the the legs were carved and were decorative. The 8 elements for the frame were put together using mortise and tenon joints. I will add more info here on the mortise and tenon joint. You can go on Youtube and type in mortise and tenon joint and some videos of the joint being made should come up. The mortise and tenon joint is very popular in furniture making because it is a very strong joint. In searching for information on how to make the frame I tried looking under rope beds and boy did I come up with very some interesting stuff. It seems that a kind of rope bed was very popular in the USA and in Europe in the 1800s ( going back to the medieval period). The 3rd picture below shows this kind of rope bed. This kind of rope bed was used with a mattress. and the rope went thru holes in the side of the bed. The bed rope was tightened with a large key type of object. While looking under rope bed I ran into a link for period rope bed. When I went to the site I was amazed because the the kind of beds shown there were very similar to the charpoy. The beds have a woven surface that is slept on directly. At the bottom you will see the rope tightening apparatus similar to the one seen on the charpoy. The gentleman got the idea not from India but from an old picture of a medieval man carrying what looks like a woven rope bed on his back ( see the picture below) I feel that this is an important website if you are interested in buliding a charpoy frame. On the site you will find info on building a basic rope bed. As part of the tightening apparatus he uses a dowel to wrap the ropes around. In the charpoy they would use rope wrapped around the side poles many times as the support for the tightening rope and the top of the woven area. The top surface of the bed is woven with a slightly different weave than seen on the charpoy the rope is wrapped around the frame one time. In the classic charpoy the rope would be wrapped around the frame 3 to 6 times making the weave much stronger. If you use the instructions to make the basic frame and change the 2 things I mentioned you should have a basic charpoy.
The weave
The frame gives the charpoy strength and the woven top surface also adds to the strength of the charpoy. This is the part I have found most difficult to figure out. The traditional charpoy is woven with a diagonal weave. I have found 3 sources on the internet to give you an idea of what is involved. Here is a Youtube video that shows a man weaving a charpoy.
If you look at all of this material you will see the weaver starts in one corner of the charpoy and goes to the opposite corner diagonal to it. He seems to do this over and over again to form the center of the weave and this is clearly shown in the video below. On my charpoy the woven part seems to be one rope. If you look at photo #6 and photo #7 , you will see how the weave is started and how it develops. Here is a link to a site where they are caning a chair using a diagonal weave. Unlike my charpoy there are 2 layers of weave, one on top and one on the bottom.
The straight weave
The diagonal weave seems to be a very common way of weaving a charpoy. however there seem to be other ways of weaving a charpoy. If you look at photo #8 and photo #9 ,you will see examples of the straight weave where the weaver weaves form top to bottom and from side to side. If you look along the sides of the weave you will see tiny loops. the loops are formed when the thread or rope is tied to the side rails of the charpoy. this appears to be similar to what you would see in macrame. look at photo#10, can you see the similarity? this lead me to look into macrame furniture. I came across the macrame chair. I found many beautiful chairs that had been woven using a combo crochet and macrame technique. please look at the photo #11 of the lounge chair, it has been woven using the above technique. The lounge chair is very similar to the the charpoy. If the above technique works on the lounge chair it should also be a good way to cover a charpoy frame. This technique can be learned best by purchasing a video to see how it is done. Here is a link to a macrame chair video.
I am working on learning the macrame chair technique and I am trying to figure out the diagonal weave technique. As I get more information and figure things out I will post them here on this blog.
Please click on the pictures below for relevant links.
charpoy
An example of a charpoy #1
Charpoy
Another picture of a charpoy #2
Old American style rope bed
Old American style rope bed #3
Medieval Rope Bed
Ancient European rope bed #4
Rope bed frame instructions
Rope bed frame instuctions #5
Weaving a Charpoy
Weaving a charpoy #6
Making a charpoy
Making a charpoy #7
Straight weave charpoy
#8
Another Straight weave charpoy
#9
Macrame chair
#10
Macrame lounge chair
#11
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15 comments:
Thank you!!! I have been looking for how to weave a charpoy, for forever.
Hello Anonymous
Thanks for visiting my blog and for your comment. Please let me know if you need any help and let us know how your charpoy turns out.
I've been planning on buying charpai legs the next time I visit India, and adding the sides the rope weave here. So this is very helpful :). They also have a version of a charpai which uses a wide strap instead of a rope for the weave. That might be easier ...
Hello Nandini
Thanks for your post. I have some of the wide material you mentioned. I will try working with it and see how things turn out. If you wanted to start making a charpoy you can find some good furniture legs in places like Home Depot. The ones I liked ran about 8 or 9 dollars each. Good luck with you project.
I have made a charpai/charpoy using pvc pipe and clothes line rope. It took some time to figure out the weave. It is a simple version with three strands beside each other throughout the weave. A difficulty that I have not found a solution to is that the entire length of rope (approx. 100 ft.) must be pulled through each weft. There must be a short cut to this. I have searched the internet in vain to find a video that shows a charpai being woven from beginning to end. Thank you for the great blog.
Hello Anonymous
It is a pleasure to speak to someone who has actually made a charpoy! Is it possible that you could send us a picture of your chapoy? Any info you can give us about making the charpoy would be greatly appreciated.
in searching on the Internet I found that there are many different forms of rope or string management used in the different weaving techniques. One of the things I discovered is the shuttle. While on vacation in Mexico, I was talking with some weavers about weaving a bed and they sold me a stick about 12 inches long and an inch thick with a 2 to 3 inch notch on each end. They showed me how to wrap the thread or rope around the stick. The stick held a lot of rope. When I got home I looked on the Internet and I found that the stick was called a shuttle. If you wrap your thread or rope on a shuttle it will not tangle and will be easy to manage. Here are some examples of shuttles.(http://www.mielkesfarm.com/wv_shut.htm) and (http://halcyonyarn.com/weaving_shuttles.html) The shuttles are often used in weaving cloth. I have made shuttles out of cardboard but they only lasted for one project. I have found that coroplast is easy to work with and the shuttles made of it can be used again and again. Coroplast is the corrugated plastic material used in making yard signs.
In your post you said that you made your frame out of PVC. I have found that PVC is very easy to work with. I have made the frame in 2 sizes, one 10 by sixteen inches for practicing weaving using 3/4 inch pipe and one 3ft by 6 ft full sized made out of 1and1/2 inch pipe. For the corners I am using the three way elbow joint. It works out great.
embeadke,
A trick, if it can be called that, to working with pvc is to reinforce the pipe by inserting a length of wood just under the width of the inner diameter of the pipe. This reinforcing, I have found, is especially needed with the longer horizontal sections on either side. I have used 3"i.d. pvc for the legs and 1 1/2"i.d. for the horizontal supports. I drilled through the legs and let the horizontal sections through the holes, much like a mortise and tenon joint in wood. If you post a picture of yours I will attempt to get a picture of mine to you.
Hello anonymous
Thanks for the great tip about putting wood inside of the PVC pipe. I am very happy with using pvc for the 10 by 16 inch model size using the 3/4 inch pipe. It is a great size for practicing weaving. However, my larger project did not turn out so well. I made the frame out of 1and 1/2 inch pipe schedule 40 (the same size used for most pvc furniture). I checked with someone who uses pvc and he said that if I gave the sides support every 36 inches it would work, so I added another pair of legs in the middle of the sides. The frame looked great and I thought it would be fine but when I tried laying on it, it poped! When I checked the pipes I found that none had broken. I do not feel comfortable trying to sleep on something that pops when I move around on it. So it is back to the drawing board for me as far as the large (32"x72") frame goes. I will consider your suggestions when I try to make a frame in the future. I am thinking of experimenting with wood or metal. I am sure with a little more research and effort I will find something that will work!
From Houston, TX. I have been looking to make, buy one for such a long time. This weekend just decided to build it myself. your Blog is a great first step in the process. BTW, I found that the centuries old charpoy making is now used for the modernized furniture you will find at Pier1 imports etc.
I found some great videos of what australians called sea grass bed (furniture) and in US these things are sold as "hand made" wicker furniture.
Following website is of good help.
http://wickerworks.com.au/
Also if you search You Tube for "PE rattan wicker fiber" you will find bunch of videos there on the weave, and modernized use of the weaving techniques.
I will share pictures once I have mine ready.
Hello there in Houston!
Thanks for responding to my blog. Good luck on your charpoy project. The instructions for weaving the straight weave can be purchased from the site listed on the blog. The straight weave can produce beautiful results. the diagonal weave is the one most often seen on the charpoy it seems to be a bit quicker to weave, if you can figure out how to do it. I look forward to seeing your charpoy.
Hi embeadke, Thank you for posting your very interesting and informative article on weaving a charpoy. I've been wanting to make one for a long time, and now I think I'm ready! I think I'll use some turned wood legs from a table I found at a thrift store, and buy some lengths of hardwood closet pole for the frame. I'm pretty good at weaving and macrame,so I think I can figure out how to weave the bed onto the frame, but I don't quite understand how to tighten it afterwards. Can you explain that? Thank you! kt
After reading your blog, I decided to get my son (who is a mechanical engineer) to make a charpoy. Hopefully it will be done this week and next will be trying to figure out what type of rope or webbing to use for the frame.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Hello Anonymous
Good luck with making your charpoy. Please let us know how it turns out.
Ya
Hello, I have successfully made my charpai(khatlo) with cloth thick straps
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