Cream Handwoven Wool and Silk Soumak Kilim

There is not a single knot in this rug. Soumak is made by wrapping the pattern yarn around the warp threads instead of tying it off, which leaves a dense braided-looking surface and a tangle of loose ends on the reverse.

01From ground to pile

This one is cream, 123 × 193 cm (4'0" × 6'4"), woven from wool with cotton and silk, and there is one of it. Turned face down, a soumak looks unfinished — that is how the technique is identified. Every color change on the front leaves its yarn hanging at the back, so the reverse is a field of cut threads while the front is tight and slightly ridged, the wrapping running in visible diagonal ranks. It sits somewhere between a kilim and an embroidery, and weighs more than either.

02After the color

The cream ground here carries the figures at low contrast, so the pattern shows itself by texture as much as by color. Made by hand in the Middle East. Wool does the bulk of the work, cotton holds the structure and silk goes into the parts meant to catch light, since silk takes dye brighter and reflects where wool stays matt. Soumak has no pile at all, which makes it flat enough to slide a door over and hard-wearing under a table.

03From the hand of the weaver

The limitation is on the other side: those loose ends can be pulled if the rug is dragged across a rough floor, and it should be lifted rather than shoved. Handwoven in the Middle East using the soumak wrapping technique. Wool with cotton and silk; no pile and no knots anywhere in it. Cream ground with low-contrast figures read as much by texture as by color. The reverse carries the cut ends of every color change, which is normal. 123 × 193 cm (4'0" × 6'4") — under a low table, in an office, in an entry. Flat enough to pass under a door; lift it rather than drag it. Clean it through a specialist; the silk will not tolerate a household wash. One piece. How is soumak different from a kilim? A kilim is woven: the weft passes over and under the warp and the pattern is the structure.

04Knot by knot, by hand

In soumak the pattern yarn is wrapped around the warp instead, which produces a denser, slightly ridged surface, a heavier rug, and a reverse side covered in the loose ends of every color change. Why is the back of a soumak rug untidy? Because the technique does not hide its yarn.

05The tone of the ground

Each time the color changes, the old thread is cut and left hanging behind the work rather than carried through it. A soumak with a clean back has been backed with a second cloth, and the loose reverse is the mark of the untouched original. It will sit lower than any other rug in the room and outlast most of them, which is the trade a flatweave makes.