Kilim

(Pronounced Kill-im)

At Ten Thousand Villages we carry two different Kilim styles: Dhurrie (pronounced Dur-ree) style Kilims and Sumeck (pronounced Su-mack) style Kilims.

There are two types of Dhurrie Kilims, those that are woven on a vertical loom and those that are woven on a horizontal loom. Dhurries employ a style of weaving known as "slit-weave." This means that there is occasionally a slit in the body of the woven rug. The Dhurries that are woven on a horizontal loom generally have a less tight weave because you cannot pack rows of weaving together as firmly on a horizontal loom. Most of the Dhurries in our selection are dyed with hand gathered natural dyes, such as roots, vegetables, tree bark and dried fruit shells.

Our Sumeck Kilims are woven on a horizontal loom. At the completion of each row, rather than cutting the yarn thread, it is looped around and used for the next row. This style of weaving is called loop weaving. The yarn thread is used until it ends, then it is tied and left to dangle on the back of the rug. The dyes used in Sumecks are synthetic. Geographically they originated in the village of Sumak in Turkmenistan.