Barak Pattern Handwoven Wool Kilim, Orange and Plum

Orange and plum lozenges, taking turns down the length of a beige ground, with long fringes left at both ends: a Barak-pattern kilim handwoven in wool in Türkiye, 157 × 283 cm (5'2" × 9'3"). Barak is a named Anatolian motif family rather than a place on this label, and the alternation of two saturated colors down a neutral field is its signature. A single old piece. Two colors alternating is a harder composition than it sounds.

01The tone of the ground

Orange and plum sit almost opposite each other in warmth, and a weaver holding them in sequence has to keep the beige ground wide enough between them or the two start to vibrate against each other along their shared edges. Here the ground has been left generous, so the lozenges read as separate events rather than as a single striped mass, and the beige — which is a color that does nothing on its own — turns out to be the element doing all the work.

02The mark of slow weaving

Under a warm bulb in the evening the orange comes forward and the plum goes almost brown; in flat daylight they trade places. Flat-woven in wool, with no pile and nothing knotted, and the fringes at each end are the warp threads themselves rather than something added afterward. That is the plain test for a handwoven flatweave: on a machine-made piece the fringe is sewn on, and it can be pulled away from the body. Long fringes tangle and mat, and they want combing out with fingers rather than a brush.

03After the color

Take the piece to a specialist for cleaning, and expect the usual signs of an older weaving at the selvedges. What is a Barak kilim? Barak is a named Anatolian motif family, recognizable by rows of large lozenges in two alternating saturated colors set against a neutral ground. The name describes the drawing and the weaving tradition it comes from rather than a single town. Handwoven in wool in Türkiye, flat-woven with no pile. Barak-family drawing: orange and plum lozenges alternating on a beige ground. 157 × 283 cm (5'2" × 9'3"), about four and a half square meters. The fringes are the warp threads themselves, not sewn on afterward. The two colors change relationship between daylight and lamplight. Long fringes mat over time and want combing out by hand. Specialist cleaning; older selvedges will show their age. One piece, and nothing else like it in this weave.