Orange Cicim Handwoven Wool Kilim, Anatolian Motifs

An orange-leaning ground, and Anatolian motifs brocaded across it in the cicim method: this is a handwoven kilim in wool and cotton, 183 × 315 cm (6'0" × 10'4"), old, from Türkiye, and singular.

01A question of size

At close to six square meters it is a full room-sized flatweave, which is unusual for a piece worked this way. Cicim is slow. Every motif thread is laid in by hand as the ground advances, so the technique is normally kept for small pieces, cushion faces and runners where the labor is contained.

02Knot by knot, by hand

Carrying it across six square meters means the weaver did the slow thing at scale, and the drawing accordingly does not repeat in the mechanical way a large kilim often does — it accumulates.

03Color that shifts through the day

The orange in the ground is not a single dye laid flat either; it is the temperature the whole field settles at, warm enough to pull a room toward it and broken often enough by the brocaded colors that it never becomes one loud plane. Wool over a cotton warp.

04How it feels underfoot

The cotton is what makes this size possible at all: a six-square-meter all-wool flatweave will not hold a true rectangle under its own weight, and the cotton takes the tension so the piece stays square.

05Up close to the pattern

The brocading gives the surface a low relief, which means it collects a little more dust in the motif areas than a plain kilim would, and a plain suction head will take that out without dragging at the raised threads. Keep the beater bar away from it.

06How many centimeters, which room

Washing goes to a specialist. Handwoven in Türkiye — cicim brocading in wool over a cotton warp. 183 × 315 cm (6'0" × 10'4"), close to six square meters and room-sized. An orange-leaning ground with Anatolian motifs laid over it in relief. Cicim at this scale is rare; the labor is normally reserved for small pieces. The cotton warp is what keeps a flatweave this large square. Dust settles in the raised motif areas; use plain suction, never a beater bar. An older piece from the house's rare stock. Specialist washing. One piece only. Six square meters of hand brocading is a decision somebody made once, and nobody in that village is likely to make it again.