Weaving Techniques

A distinctive feature of kilim weaving is that individual colour sections are completed before the weaver moves on to other areas of the rug. This is in total contrast to knotted pile carpets, where the weaver works straight across the carpet in horizontal lines of knots, using many different colours in close succession. The kilim weaver will work on
one block of colour, laying perhaps twenty wefts before beating them down with a comb and moving onto the adjacent colour. Traditional nomadic weavers were unable to carry large quantities of prepared wool with them, and so would use whatever colour and texture of wool came to hand, each time the portable loom was set up. Because of this, the exact colours that the weaver had planned for the design could not always be found, and the kilim became an endlessly shifting colourscape, with details and idiosyncrasies that can be discovered and enjoyed throughout its life.

Balanced plain weave This is the straightforward interlacing of the warp and weft on a loom. Where the warp and weft are of the samethickness, the result is balanced plainweave. The colour of both warp and weft threads will show on the surface of the kilim, so that they must both be the same colour for a plain cloth. The background for decorative devices, such as cicim and zilli, is generally woven in this way.

Weft-faced or tapestry weave Here the wefts are beaten down onto each other so tightly that the warps are hidden. The colour of a kilim woven in this way is determined solely by the colour of the wefts, and the warps may
therefore be monochrome or undyed. Such kilims will be either plain or decorated with simple horizontal bands of different colours. Weft-faced weave is commonly used for the ends of kilims, and of knotted carpets, as well as for tent cloths, bags and saddle bags.

Slitweave This is the simplest technique by which blocks or areas of colour, rather than simple horizontal bands, may be introduced into the weave. One coloured weit returns around the lastwarp of its own colour area. The adjacent colour returns around the next warp, leaving a vertical slit between the boundaries ofthe two colours. Obviously this slit must not be too longor the kilim will be weak and easily torn. To avoid this the block of colour is stepped diagonally, which in the case of slits of up to half an inch long results in a bold geometric diagonal design of diamonds and triangles, or in a distinctive crenellated pattern. Sometimes the slits are very noticeable, but on very finely woven kilims, such as those from the Caucasus, they are often undetectable. Many kilims are woven in this way, and most are hilly reversible. Some kilims have diagonal lines of slitweave across a single colour area. These are known as ‘lazy lines’, enabling the weaver to work in stages on small parts of one colour section. When completing the rest of the section, the weaver meets up with the earlier work with a diagonal line of slit-weave steps, successiiilly breaking up large areas of one colour.

Contour bands There are a number of ways to cover or reinforce slits. Simple, contrasting contour bands can be woven between the blocks of colour, outlining each area, or, in a more complex method, the weaver can wrap extra wefts of a contrasting shade round pairs of warp threads between different colour areas. This produces a contour on the face of the finished weave, which looks as if it has been worked in after the piece has been taken off the loom. In fact the wrapping is done progressively throughout the weaving of the kilim. This technique is used throughout Anatolia.

Dovetailing and single-interlock tapestry In dovetailing the welt threads from adjacent colour areas return around the same warp. Although there is now no slit between the two colour areas, the design does become blurred at the edges, a small ridge is formed at the interlock and the weave cannot be as dense as it is when slitweave is used, because of the doubling up of wefts on a single warp. A link of 1:1 of each colour on the same warp is
known as dovetailing; higher ratios give a more jagged outline and are called single-interlock tapestry. These techniques are used in Thrace, Persia and Afghanistan, and the kilims produced are double-sided.

Double-interlock tapestry This technique is not common in Turkey, but is used extensively in Turkestan and occasionally in Persia, especially among the Bakhtiari tribes. The wefts of adjacent colours link once as they move in one direction and again in the next row in the other direction. This creates a very crisp outline between the colours, and gives a strong, solid weave without slits, but causes a ridge to be formed on the back of the kilim, so that it
is not reversible.

Extra weft insets and curved wefts Normally the weft passes between the warps horizontally. However, by beating down the weft unevenly it can be curved as required. If, as sometimes happens, the thickness of the yarn varies, or has been woven unevenly resulting in a sloping weft line — extra wefts can be inserted to take up the space, in a wedge formation. As well as being corrective these extra weft inserts are used decoratively, to insert a series of small motifs or break up large colour areas in the same way as ‘lazy lines’. When extra wefts are inserted, the main weft is usually curved around it. This can be skilfully exaggerated by craftsmen so that curvilinear shapes are created, such as waves, or even a perfect circle. Great skill is needed to produce a weave which lies flat despite the variation in tension of the wefts. Curved weft weaving has been extensively used in textiles  for many centuries in all corners of the world, and it produces kilims with flowing naturalistic designs, such as those from central and north Persia, rather than the geometric and angular designs that result with slitweave or interlock techniques.

Weft-faced patterning This is a different concept from slitweave, dovetailing or interlocking, where colour changes only occur from one block of colour to the next. With weft- faced patterning, coloured wefts are woven so that they only show on the surface of the kilim when they are needed for part of an intricate pattern that intermingles two or more colours. For the rest of the time, they float along the back of the rug. This technique produces a kilim with distinctive narrow bands of very fine, tightly woven patterns across the width. It is used extensively in Central Asia by Balouch, Qala-i-Nau and Sarmayie weavers. It is occasionally used in Persia and Anatolia in a guard band just next to the fringe.

Warp-faced patterning A relatively difficult technique not widely used in kilim weaving except in north Afghanistan and parts of Persia. Here the warps form the pattern and colour, and the weft is not visible. When the warp is not being employed on the surface of the weave to produce the pattern it floats along the reverse, as with weft-faced patterning. It is impossible to weave a piece more than about l2 inches wide using the warps in this way because the tension of the weave goes awry. Instead, very long, narrow strips are woven   and then cut into equal lengths and sewn together to make a rug. In Central Asia this is called ghujeri. The warp-faced patterning technique is principally used for binding-ropes, tent-bands and long, decorative strips that form a ‘cornice’ around the top of a room or tent.

Cicim The term cicim thought to derive from a combination of the Turkish word cici meaning small and delightful] and the first person possessive suffix ‘im’, and it describesa decorative device, often set against a balanced plainweave or weft- faced weave background. Cicim is a technique used mainly in Turkey, although it is occasionally seen in Persian and west Afghan kilims. It is often mistakenly thought that the extra wefts from which the pattern is formed are embroidered into the piece after the ground weave is finished; in fact, they are interlaced as the whole work progresses. Since the extra yarn is generally thicker than the warp and weft, a raised or couched pattern forms. All cicim designs are in the form of narrow contours of coloured pattern, but these solid line motifs may also be filled in with other kinds of weaving, such as zilli or soumak, or may be woven close together with no ground weave visible in between. Kilims using cicim are often quite lightweight and are traditionally used as
curtains, or as furniture and hearth covers.

Zilli Like cicim, zilli is both a Turkish word (meaning ‘with small bells or chimes"; and a weaving technique found mostly in Anatolia. On the surface of the rug it resembles cording, running parallel with the warps. Extra wefts are wrapped round the warps in a common ratio of 2:1, 3:1 or 5:1. Two or three rows of ground weft are shot between each row of thicker float wefts, so that the surface is completely covered with float over two, three or five warps. Each colourd yarn turns back in its own field, but contours may be created only with the same ‘floating three and five’ system. One or more warps will be visible where the set has been split between each surface float. In contrast to ciciin, zilli is an easy technique for weaving horizontal and vertical lines. Weaving diagonals is a good deal more complicated and can only be done by offsetting the weft floats by a single warp. Zilli is used extensively by Turkish weavers, especially around Konya, Sirrihisar, Canakkale and Mut.

Soumak The term soumak is said to have derived from the Caucasian town Shemakha, where very fine brocade weft- wrapped kilims have been woven for centuries. The soumak weave is achieved by weft-wrapping rather than the floating or semi-wrapping of extra wefts as in zilli or cicim. Usually it is wrapped with an extra weft in the ground weave, but the most widespread forms of soumak in Anatolia do not have ground weft to support the wrapping structure. The finest soumak kilims come from the Caucasus, and during the last century, from Balouchistan. The technique is not used extensively in Persia or in Turkey except in small areas of weave on bags and juvals. Kilims woven in soumak technique are very hard-wearing and heavy and often display the finest workmanship.