Multicolor Anatolian Handwoven Karapınar Cicim Kilim

Karapınar sits on the Konya plain in central Anatolia, and cicim is the technique its weavers use: a flatweave in which extra colored wefts are wrapped around the warps as the work goes, so the motifs stand slightly proud of the ground. This one is handwoven in wool, multicolored, Anatolian in its drawing. A cicim is neither a pile rug nor a plain kilim. The ground is woven flat, and the pattern is built into it during weaving with supplementary threads, which is why the figures have a raised, almost embroidered look and why the back of the piece is nearly as legible as the front.

01Color that shifts through the day

Colors run bright and deliberately unmatched, the way village work has always been drawn, with beige carrying the quieter passages. The pattern was worked from memory rather than from a cartoon, so no two pieces repeat. These are older Anatolian weavings rather than new production, gathered one at a time, and the house files them among its rare pieces.

02How it feels underfoot

Wool throughout, no pile to crush, light enough to lift and turn over. A flatweave has one real weakness worth knowing about: there is nothing to absorb a spill, so whatever goes on it goes straight through to the floor beneath.

03From the hand of the weaver

Professional washing. Handwoven in wool, in Karapınar on the Konya plain. Cicim: a flatweave with supplementary wefts, so the motifs sit proud of the ground. Anatolian drawing, worked from memory, so each piece differs from the next. Flat and near-reversible, with no pile to flatten. An older weaving, filed by the house among its rare pieces. Nothing absorbs a spill on a flatweave — it passes through to the floor. Professional washing. What makes a cicim different from an ordinary kilim? A plain kilim is woven with the pattern formed by the weft alone and lies flat on both faces.

04Color, by the light

A cicim adds extra colored threads that wrap around the warps as the weaving proceeds, so the motifs are built on top of the ground and stand up from it slightly. It will not match anything else in the room, and that is what it is for.