A type of carpet constructed without pile, where the warp and weft threads are woven together to create a flat surface. Examples include kilims, dhurries, and soumaks. Flatweaves are typically reversible, lightweight, and easier to clean than pile carpets, making them popular for casual spaces and warmer climates.
An animal fiber that tribal weavers sometimes use for a rug's foundation in place of wool, as in Gabbeh and Quchan rugs, while the pile itself stays wool. Together with mohair, camel hair and cow hair it is among the less common rug materials, seen mostly in tribal work, and it also turns up in some flat-woven kilims.
A traditional flat-woven textile from Iran and the Caucasus region, similar to kilims but typically woven in narrow strips that are sewn together. Jajims feature colorful stripes and simple geometric patterns, often in bright blues, reds, and yellows. Historically used as floor coverings, bedspreads, or wrapping cloths by nomadic tribes, they are now appreciated as decorative textiles and wall hangings.
A flat-woven rug with no pile, traditionally made in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and the Balkans. Colored weft threads are interlaced with the warp without knots, so both sides look alike. The fibers are typically wool, cotton, or goat hair, and natural dyes often give slight shade variations that are normal, not flaws. Its low profile clears doors easily, and it can hang as wall art. In a knotted rug, "kilim" also names the flat-woven band at each end, where extra weft rows secure the ends beside the fringe.
The band at each short end of a knotted rug, between the last row of pile and the fringe, woven with weft only. The weaver passes extra weft through the warp there several times, without knots, to secure the pile and give the ends a tighter, stronger finish. It is a finishing detail of a pile rug, not a kilim rug in its own right; a fringe that has to be hidden can be tied back against it on the reverse. In Bijar rugs the fringe at this end is often braided.
A rectangular woven box-bag — nomadic luggage — used by tribes of Persia and the Caucasus to store and transport bedding on migration. Woven flat in kilim, soumak, or mixed techniques and then assembled, mafrash panels display some of the boldest tribal design work, and many antique examples have been opened up and repurposed as striking flatweave rugs or cushions.
A method of displaying a rug on a wall as a work of art; any style, tribal or floral as well as pictorial, can be hung. Strips of strong, adhesive-free cotton fabric (for a wide rug, for example three of about 24 by 4 inches, or 61 by 10 cm; for a small rug, one strip set about 1 inch, or 2.5 cm, in from each end) are hand-stitched to the back about 2 inches (5 cm) below the top, clear of the fringe or kilim end, with stitches every 1/2 to 1 inch (1.3-2.5 cm), and folded into a pocket. A wood or metal dowel slid through the pocket rests on wall hooks strong enough to carry the weight, which avoids damaging the rug.
A flat-woven rug technique that creates a textured surface resembling braiding or embroidery. Unlike kilims, soumaks have a raised pattern created by wrapping weft threads around warp threads. This technique produces durable rugs with distinctive geometric designs and a textured surface, traditionally made in the Caucasus region, Iran, and Turkey.
The two thread systems that make up a carpet's foundation: the warp, the vertical threads strung on the loom first, and the weft, the horizontal threads passed through them between rows of knots. The foundation is usually cotton, though wool is common in tribal and older rugs and silk in very fine ones. Single-weft rugs, standard in the greater Hamadan area, show zigzag rows of white warp dots on the back and have a thinner pile, whereas double-weft construction, standard in fine, tightly woven rugs and in Bijar and Heriz, hides the warp and gives a thicker, denser pile. The warp ends form the fringe, and extra weft passes at each end form the flat-woven kilim end that secures the pile.