Burgundy Handwoven Wool Cicim Kilim, Konya Karapınar

At 54 × 81 cm (1'9" × 2'8") this is smaller than a doormat and it is not a floor piece — it is the size that hangs on a wall or lies along the top of a chest. Woven flat by hand in wool at Karapınar, a district out on the Konya plain, burgundy, and worked in cicim: a second set of colored threads carried over the ground weave as it goes, leaving the motifs raised. Burgundy is the ground and it is dense, so the raised threads have to be pale to register — cream, a yellow, a light blue.

Because those threads stand up off the surface they catch a raking light and throw a shadow half a millimeter long, which is why a cicim photographs badly and looks better in the hand than on a screen.

01The Wool on the surface

Turn it over and the reverse shows the carrying threads running between motifs, which is the quickest way to tell a cicim from an embroidered kilim. All wool, and chest stock — sandık eskisi, folded away rather than used, which is why the burgundy has not gone brown.

02How it is protected

The raised threads are the vulnerable part: they are what a vacuum head or a chair leg catches first, and on a piece this small there is no reason to risk it when a wall or a table will do. Professional cleaning, gently, and tell the cleaner it is cicim. Woven by hand, in wool, at Karapınar in central Anatolia. Cicim technique — supplementary threads carried over the ground, motifs raised. Burgundy ground with cream, yellow and pale blue drawing. The reverse shows the carrying threads, which identifies the technique. 54 × 81 cm (1'9" × 2'8") — wall, chest lid, table. Raised threads snag; keep it away from vacuum heads and chair legs. Chest-kept, so the burgundy is still burgundy. Professional cleaning. Small weavings like this were the ones a household kept rather than sold, and they are usually the best drawing in the chest.