Multicolor Cicim Handwoven Wool Yörük Saddlebag

A heybe is a saddlebag: two woven pouches joined by a panel that lay across the back of a horse or a donkey. This one was made in wool by Yörük weavers in Türkiye, worked in cicim, and measures 50 × 133 cm (1'8" × 4'4") laid out flat. It came out of a dowry chest rather than off a floor. There is one. Cicim is the technique, and it is worth knowing what it does, because it is not weaving in the ordinary sense. The ground is woven flat, and while it is still on the loom the weaver wraps additional colored threads around groups of warps, so that the motif sits slightly proud of the ground — the effect of embroidery, produced without a needle and without a second pass.

01How it feels underfoot

On a bag it also thickens the cloth, which is the sort of thing that mattered when the object had to carry weight. Yörük households wove what they needed and decorated what they wove, and a heybe was needed: grain, bread, wool, whatever had to move went into it. The chest is why this one survived.

02Which tone on the ground

Pieces put aside for a daughter's dowry were folded away instead of used, which is why the color on a chest piece is stronger than on a floor piece of the same age. It is wool throughout. Hang it, lay it over the end of a bench, or use it as it was meant to be used, though the wool is old and a modern load is not what it was measured for.

03At the loom in in Türkiye

Professional cleaning; nothing wet at home. Handwoven in wool by Yörük weavers in Türkiye, in the cicim technique. Cicim wraps extra weft threads around the warps, so the motifs stand above the ground. 50 × 133 cm (1'8" × 4'4") measured flat, as a joined pair of pouches. It survived in a dowry chest, and the color shows it. Listed among the house's rare and older stock. Hangs on a wall, sits across a bench, or carries light things. Professional cleaning; keep it out of water. What is a cicim? Cicim is a Turkish flatweaving technique in which the weaver wraps extra colored threads around groups of warp threads while the ground is still on the loom.

04Knot by knot, by hand

The motifs it makes sit slightly raised, so a cicim looks embroidered although nothing was ever sewn onto it. What was a heybe used for? A heybe is a saddlebag: two woven pouches joined by a connecting panel, thrown over the back of a horse or a donkey so that one pouch hung on each side. Anatolian households wove their own, and pieces put aside for a dowry were often never loaded at all. Anything woven to be worked and then never worked is a small accident of survival, and this is one of them.