Multicolor Shahsevan Soumak Kilim in Wool and Silk

Soumak is not the same thing as a kilim, though it is sold as one: the weft is wrapped around the warp threads instead of passed straight through them, which produces a raised, ribbed, almost braided surface.

01Knot by knot, by hand

This is a handwoven Shahsevan soumak in wool with silk, 114 × 198 cm (3'9" × 6'6"), multicolored, made in the Middle East. Shahsevan drawing is close-packed and small in scale — hooked medallions, stars and stepped forms in tight rows — and soumak is the technique that can carry it, because a wrapped weft draws a fine line where a flat one draws a stepped block.

02From ground to pile

The silk is not the whole surface: it goes in where a highlight is wanted, and it announces itself by catching light in a straight line down the ribs while the wool around it stays matt. Handwoven in wool with silk.

03Coming off the loom

Soumak takes considerably longer than plain flatweaving, because each pass has to be wound rather than thrown, and the back is left thick with the loose ends of every color change, which is how a soumak is identified at a glance. The technique produces a piece with no pile and real weight in the hand.

04What Silk does

Silk in the yarn means a specialist wash; ordinary rug cleaning will dull it. How do you tell a soumak from a kilim? Turn it over. A kilim looks much the same on both faces, because the weft passes straight through the warp.

05The mark of slow weaving

A soumak has a front of tight raised ribs and a back thick with the tails left at every color change, and it is noticeably heavier in the hand. Handwoven in the Middle East in wool, with silk worked into the highlights. Soumak construction: the weft is wrapped around the warp, not passed through it. Front of tight raised ribs; back thick with the tails of every color change. Shahsevan drawing — hooked medallions, stars and stepped forms in close rows. Silk catches light along the ribs while the wool beside it stays matt. 114 × 198 cm (3'9" × 6'6") — a study, a bedside, or a wall. Slower to weave than a flat kilim, and heavier for its size. Silk content means a specialist wash; ordinary rug cleaning dulls it. Soumak is the technique weavers used when the drawing mattered more than the hours, and that decision is still readable in the piece.