Multicolor Handwoven Wool Soumak Kilim

Soumak is neither knotted nor plainly woven: the colored yarn is wrapped around the warp threads and carried along, so the pattern stands slightly proud on the front and leaves loose ends trailing across the back. This handwoven wool kilim is worked that way, 172 × 263 cm (5'8" × 8'8"), multicolored, and past eighty years old. Sandık eskisi, and one of one. The technique belongs to the Caucasus and eastern Anatolia, and it produces something between a kilim and a knotted rug.

01The origin of the pattern

It is flat, like a kilim, and it has no pile to walk down; but the wrapping gives a raised, almost braided surface and lets motifs carry fine detail that slit-weave cannot manage — hooked medallions, stepped stars, animal forms drawn tightly enough to be recognized.

02From ground to pile

The trailing weft ends on the reverse are diagnostic: turn a soumak over and you can identify it in a second, which is one of the few honest tests a buyer can perform without expertise. Wool, and nothing else in the record.

03Coming off the loom

A soumak is denser and heavier than a kilim of the same size and it will not curl at the corners in the way a light flatweave does. The wrapping is also the vulnerability: a snagged wrap can pull along a run if it is not repaired, so this is a piece for a room rather than a doorway, and vacuuming should be done with a plain head and no beater bar. At past eighty it falls in the semi-antique band, and, having been chest-kept, it shows less surface wear than that age would normally bring. Handwoven soumak — weft wrapped around the warp rather than knotted. Wool throughout; the yarn record lists no other fiber. Flat with a raised, braided surface, and trailing weft ends on the reverse. The technique allows finer detail than slit-weave kilim can hold. 172 × 263 cm (5'8" × 8'8"), about 4.5 square meters. Past eighty years: semi-antique, chest-kept, with limited surface wear. Snagged wraps should be repaired promptly; vacuum with no beater bar. What separates soumak from ordinary kilim weaving? Both lie flat and neither has a pile, but the construction differs.

A kilim is built from weft passed straight through the warp, while in soumak the weft is wrapped around each warp thread and carried forward. That wrapping raises the surface, allows finer detail, and leaves loose thread ends visible on the back. Can a soumak be used on a floor? Yes, and it is heavier and more stable underfoot than an ordinary flatweave of the same size.

04Which furniture, which room

The one caution is snagging: a pulled wrap can run if it is left, so it suits a room rather than a doorway, and it should be vacuumed with a plain head. Anyone who has turned one over remembers the back better than the front, which is unusual in a floor covering.