Multicolor Handwoven Wool Konya Cicim Village Kilim

A handwoven Konya cicim kilim in wool and cotton, 95 × 130 cm (3'1" × 4'3"), carrying the Anatolian motif families in several colors over a ground that changes tone between them. Konya has been a center of Anatolian weaving since the Seljuk period.

01From the hand of the weaver

This is village work from the same province, and one of one. The oldest surviving Turkish rugs came out of the Alâeddin Mosque in Konya and are Seljuk work of the thirteenth century, which is worth having in the room when looking at a village weaving from the same province seven hundred years later. The vocabulary has not traveled as far as you would expect.

02The Wool on the surface

Hooked forms, stepped diamonds and running borders are drawn here in brocaded yarn over the flat ground, each figure a small raised island of color with the kilim showing between them. Wool takes the color and the cotton warp takes the strain, which is the construction used for a piece meant to last in a house rather than to be sold out of one.

03Choosing the size

At 95 × 130 it is the size that fits beside a bed or under a low table, and it is light enough to need grip beneath it on a hard floor. What a cicim will not tolerate is a vacuum beater bar — the raised yarns sit on the surface, and a rotating brush drags them loose. What is cicim weaving? Cicim is a brocading technique used on Anatolian flatweaves.

04Color that shifts through the day

Extra colored yarns are wrapped around the warp threads as the plain ground weave rises, so the motifs sit slightly above the surface and can be felt with a hand. It is considerably slower than plain kilim weaving. How should a cicim kilim be vacuumed? Use suction alone and keep a rotating beater bar away from it.

05How it feels underfoot

The brocaded yarns lie on the surface rather than being locked into the structure, and a revolving brush can pull them loose. For a deeper clean, use a specialist who handles flatweaves. Handwoven in Konya province, central Türkiye. Wool brocading and wool ground on a cotton warp. 95 × 130 cm (3'1" × 4'3"), a bedside or low-table size. Anatolian motif families — hooked forms, stepped diamonds, running borders. Cicim figures stand above the flat ground and can be felt by hand. Light enough to slide; use grip underneath on a hard floor. Suction only, no beater bar; professional washing when needed. One piece. Konya was weaving before the Ottomans and has not stopped since, and this is what that looks like at village scale.