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Turkey Carpets
The Kilim is a truly remarkable tradition maintained by women of Anatolia for hundreds of generations. Handmade kilims are among the world's most coveted household items. While antique weavings are increasingly rare, today Turkey leads the world in a return to traditional kilim rug production such as authentic kilims made from natural wool, cotton, and silk fibers, and quality dyes. Because every rug is hand-woven according to age-old traditions, each is a unique work of ethnic art. Turkish mothers and daughters maintained this mysterious tradition for the last thousand years as Turkish tribes settled in Anatolia and intermingled with the local population.
Kilim (flat woven) 100% pure wool ,perfect quality, tradational Kilims known as the flat-woven carpets, play an important role in the lives of Anatolian people. The roof and the walls of the home of a nomad are made of kilims. The oldest record of kilims comes from Catal Hoyuk Neolithic pottery circa 7000 BC, the oldest settlement ever to have been discovered. The majority of them represent geometric and stylized forms that are similar or identical to other historical to contemporary designs.
Turkish Carpets Carpets, whether knotted or flat woven are among the best known art forms produced by the Turks from time immemorial. There are environmental, sociological, economic, and religious reasons for the widespread art of carpet weaving among the Turkish people from Central Asia to Turkey. The geographical regions where Turks have lived throughout thecenturies lie in the temperate zone. Temperature fluctuations between day and night, summer and winter may vary greatly. Turks-nomadicor pastoral, agrarian or town-dwellers, living in tents or in sumptuous houses in large cities-have protected themselves from the extremes of the cold weather by covering the floors, and sometimes walls and doorways, with carpets. The carpets are always hand made of wool or sometimes cotton, with occasional additions of silk. These carpets are natural barriers against the cold. The flat woven kilims which are frequently embroidered are used as blankets, curtains, and covers over sofas or as cushion covers.
Carpet weaving is the traditional art of Turks and the development of the arts linked to the Turks since its inception, with early woven fragments discovered in Central Asia.
Floor rugs have been known since ancient times going back to Assyrians and Babylonians but these were not knotted rugs but woven fabrics. The knotted carpet does not appear in Islamic countries until the emergence of the Seljuks in the 11th century.
Hereke carpets are made of new motifs and techniques developed rapidly, producing a rich variety of rugs throughout the many Turkish carpet weaving regions. Apart from carpets peculiar to such regions as Usak and Bergama, and those representing different periods of Turkish history. The oldest Hereke carpets, now exhibited in Topkapi and other palaces in Istanbul, contain a wide variety of colours and designs. The Typical “palace carpet” features intricate floral designs, including the tulip, daisy, carnation, crocus, rose, lilac, and hyacinth. It often has quarter medallions in the corners. The medallion composition used in rugs made in Usak, in western Turkey. Hereke carpets remain among the finest and most valuable examples of woven carpets in the world.
Anatolian Turkish Rugs have been used in the home as floor coverings, blankets, tablecloths and decorations. They acquire value as they are used, whereas most objects decrease in value over time. The designs, which consisted of twisting branches, leaves are woven in a naturalistic style and establish the basic composition of the rug. This style was continued in other cities and can be seen in Turkish rugs today.
In the beginning of the 19th and 20th centuries, the rugs woven in Hereke gained worldwide recognition. These rugs were originally woven only for the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire. The finest silk rugs in the world are still being woven in Hereke today. Today in Turkey, there are regions which keep this wonderful tradition alive; such rugs are woven in Kayseri, Sivas, Konya, Hereke, Yagcioglu, Kula, Dösemealti, Taspinar, Milas, Canakkale, Bergama, Enize, Usak and Yahyali.
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