Cicim Handwoven Wool Village Kilim, Anatolian Pattern

In cicim the motifs are not woven into the ground. The ground is woven flat first, and the pattern is worked over it with supplementary yarn, so it stands slightly proud of the surface. Hundreds of small squares on this kilim were worked that way, one by one, each holding a motif shaped like an hourglass. Two large stepped diamonds sit on a red ground, one in the center and one near an end.

01Color that shifts through the day

Their centers are cream and cross-shaped, framed by a band of brownish black. Around them, rings of purple, orange, green and yellow squares widen outward in layers. Narrow bands of yellow zigzags and black-and-white diamonds run around the edge. In the end band, small white, red and blue diamonds sit between the yellow zigzags, with the cream fringe starting just below. Wool throughout, handwoven in Türkiye.

02A question of size

159 × 255 cm (5'3" × 8'4"), about 4.1 square meters (roughly 44 square feet). A sandık eskisi, "old from the chest": kept in a chest after weaving and never laid down. The size suits the middle of a seating group, a sofa and two armchairs.

03What it sits well with

With the sofa parallel to the long side, its front legs come onto the kilim and the whole group gathers on one floor. Red and orange carry the warm side here, so an off-white or pale stone wall leaves the kilim as the one colored surface in the room.

04The Linen on the surface

The purple rings can turn up once more in a lavender linen pillow. A walnut coffee table sits close to the depth of the red ground, so no hard line forms between table and kilim. Both large diamonds have cream centers, the largest light areas on the kilim.