Multicolor Kazak Cicim Handwoven Wool Kilim

The motifs stand slightly above the ground rather than in it. That is cicim, and this is a cicim kilim: handwoven in wool in Türkiye, 180 × 285 cm (5'11" × 9'4"), multicolored, drawing on the Kazak family of Anatolian motifs, and old enough that the house files it with its rare stock. A single piece. Kazak motifs are the large, blocky, high-contrast forms of the eastern Anatolian and Caucasian border — big stepped medallions, hooked latch shapes, wide bands — and they suit cicim because cicim rewards a bold outline.

01A line from the archive

Where a plain kilim builds its pattern from the ground wefts alone, cicim lays additional colored threads over and around the warps as the weaving advances, so the motif is added rather than substituted. A palm laid flat on it finds the difference at once — the ground is smooth and the pattern is not. Light catches those raised threads at an angle and gives the drawing a shadow that a flat kilim cannot produce. The piece is described in Turkish as sandık eskisi — chest-old.

02Coming off the loom

Anatolian households kept textiles in a dowry chest and brought them out for occasions, which is the single reason wool weavings from that period survive at all, and it explains a piece that has age without the wear age normally brings. All wool, no pile, no knots.

03What it sits well with

The raised cicim threads are the part that will show wear first, since they stand where a foot lands, so a low-traffic floor suits it better than a hallway. Cleaning is a specialist job. What does cicim add to a kilim? Cicim lays supplementary colored threads over the ground weave as the work proceeds, so motifs are built on top of the surface instead of being formed by the ground wefts.

04At the loom in in Türkiye

The pattern sits slightly raised, and it catches light and casts a small shadow. Handwoven in Türkiye in wool, worked in the cicim technique. Kazak-family motifs: large stepped forms, hooks and broad bands. 180 × 285 cm (5'11" × 9'4"), a little over five square meters. The pattern stands proud of the ground and is legible by touch. Sandık eskisi — kept in a dowry chest, which is why it has age without hard wear. The raised threads take wear first; a quiet floor suits it better than a corridor. Specialist cleaning. One piece only. Rugs are looked at, and cicim is one of the few weavings that also asks to be touched.