Orange Cicim Handwoven Wool Kilim, Burdur

It was folded in a chest for decades and barely walked on. A handwoven wool kilim from Burdur in southwestern Anatolia, worked in the cicim technique, 114 × 161 cm (3'9" × 5'3"), in orange, green and red.

01Color that shifts through the day

Cicim is flatweaving with extra threads laid in over the ground, so the motifs sit slightly proud of the surface. Orange leads and the green and red answer it, giving the piece an energy older kilims usually have had washed out of them.

02Reading the motif

The motifs follow the traditional Burdur drawing, raised above the flat ground by the cicim threads so their edges catch light and throw a small shadow. None of the colors has gone soft with age, because this kilim spent its whole life away from the light. Woven entirely in wool, by hand, in the Burdur district. In Turkish a piece kept like this is called sandık eskisi, chest-old: made, put away, and taken out again looking close to new.

03First contact

There is no wear to point at, and the trade-off runs the opposite way to the usual one, since what it lacks is the softening that use gives a kilim. Send it to a professional rather than washing it at home. Handwoven in Burdur, southwestern Anatolia, in wool throughout. Cicim technique: supplementary threads laid over the flatweave so motifs stand slightly raised. Orange, green and red, none of them faded. Kept folded in a chest instead of used, which is why the colors held. 114 × 161 cm (3'9" × 5'3") — an entryway, a kitchen, or beside a desk. Thin, firm and light; it wants a pad on a polished floor. Professional washing. The colors are the ones the weaver chose rather than the ones fifty years of sun would have left, and that is unusual enough to be the reason to own it.