Flat Weave Rugs

The word flatweave simply means a rug without a knotted pile.
Flat-weaving is found in some form all over the world from North America to Scandinavia and Indonesia from Central Asia, to Iran, Afghanistan, Ukraine & the Caucasus etc.


Flat Weaves require less labor and materials and are sometimes less expensive to produce. They are made to serve practical functions as inexpensive floor coverings, bags, wall hangings both utilitarian and decorative. Since many are made by techniques simpler than pile knotting it is assumed they predate the pile carpet. Anatolian Kilims have been traced to the neolithic period.

Kilims use the warp wrapping slit tapestry technique

Soumak is often described as a form of brocading with interlaced stitches.

Jajim is a combination of soumak and Kilim techniques; with a flat-weave base and embroidered/ brocade overstitching.

An American Nomad: Josephine Powell

May 15th 1919-January 19 2007

Josephine Powell was an American photographer, traveler and a collector of Anatolian ethno-graphic objects and textiles. From 1952-1975 Powell traveled extensively by car & horse, alone or accompanied by her dog. She visited and documented Afghanistan, North Africa, Greece, Kashmir, India, Iran, Italy, Nepal, East & West Pakistan, Russia, Turkey and Yugoslavia. She took photographs of local monuments, archeology and of historical and ethnographical subject and museum collections.

Her photographs have appeared in more than 150 book and publications. She settled in Istanbul in 1973 to work on a book on Anatolian Kilims.

For years she followed semi-nomadic Anatolians in her VW caravan. She documented daily life and the manufacture of Kilims and other village textiles.

Shortly before her death in 2007 she donated the majority of her Turkish collection to the KOC Foundation. It is currently on display in Istanbul.

Photo via Cornucopia Magazine

Paige’s personal photos from her visit to
Josephine’s exhibit in Istanbul, Turkey.

Parts of this exhibit were shown at the GW Textiles Museum in D.C.
As seen HERE

“What Josephine Saw”