Your right Steve, even 2 feet is a steep step, and not practical for a quick entre. But the Germech must anyway to some extend have been seen as an intended semi-barrier, kind of a half open/ half closed door. Again I would think it wasn't for everyday use, as with many of the Turkmen weaves a relation to the marriage ceremonies to me seems plausible (perhaps something like "please don't disturb the newly wed too much"
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Come to think about it, and looking through the Germechs I have in my photo archive, the few which have fringes or reminiscence of fringes seem to have fringes made simply by the warp threads, like this late Ersari Germech:
Warp fringes to me ain't terrible decorative, and aren’t the long and decorative fringes on fx Tekke pieces always colored, and applied into the warp and weft at the end of the pile weave? Like here:
I don’t think I have seen long decorative colored fringes applied at the end of flat weave endings. The Tekke Germechs doesn’t have any traces of colored “fringe-knots” where the pile weave is ending:
And on the other hand the specific design requirement of the Germech is as far as I understand that it mimics elements of the lover part of Ensis elem (and its borders) - and Ensis don’t have long decorative fringes at the elem. So perhaps long decorative fringes is actually not a regular design element of a Germech, and the one posted earlier an odd duck? (Turkmens breaking the rules seem to be a rule)
Sorry if I am hijacking the thread to be about the Germech format instead of the Ensi, but I of course sees them as being an interesting pair.
best
Martin
(and thanks Rich, i will try to come up with something more wild than this
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