🧵 Materials, Tools & Techniques

🐑 The Raw Materials

🐑 Wool — Yün

Most Common Natural Fibre

Wool is the backbone of Anatolian carpet weaving. The finest quality comes from sheep raised at high altitude, where cold winters produce a dense, lustrous fleece with long, strong fibres. Wool holds natural dyes beautifully — colours often deepen and improve with age, a quality absent in synthetic fibres.

Kurk (Kırkım yünü): The highest grade — first spring shearing from the neck and belly. Silky, long-stapled, and luminous. Used in premium village carpets.
Ordinary wool: Later shearings — shorter fibre, more common in commercial production.

Best regions: Taurus mountain Yörük wool (Döşemealtı, Ayvacık), Kars highland wool.

🥚 Silk — İpek

Luxury Hereke

Silk is the most prestigious carpet fibre — fine enough to achieve over 2 million knots per square metre, yet stronger than steel for its weight. Silk carpets shimmer and change colour with viewing angle; no other material replicates this effect.

Source: Silkworm (Bombyx mori) cocoons, fed exclusively on mulberry leaves. A single cocoon yields up to 1,500 metres of continuous thread.
Silk on Silk: Both warp and pile are silk — maximum fineness, maximum cost.
Silk on Cotton: Cotton warp with silk pile — slightly less fine but more stable.

Primary centre: Hereke (Kocaeli). Also Kayseri for commercial silk blends.

🌿 Cotton — Pamuk

Warp & Weft Foundation

Cotton is rarely used for pile but is widely used as the warp and weft foundation in town carpets (Kayseri, Isparta, Sivas). It provides a more stable, less elastic foundation than wool, enabling finer knotting. Cotton warps do not stretch with humidity like wool.

Cotton pile appears in a few specific traditions — notably the white highlight knots in some Hereke and city carpets, where its bright, stable white cannot be replicated by wool.

🐐 Goat Hair & Camel Hair

Tribal Nomadic

Used primarily in tribal and nomadic weaving — flat-weaves, storage bags (heybe), tent dividers. Goat hair (kıl) is exceptionally strong and weather-resistant; it does not absorb moisture like wool.

Camel hair (deve tüyü): Prized for its natural golden-brown tones. Used in some Kayseri and eastern Anatolian carpets. Cannot be dyed — its natural colour is its beauty.

Found in: Kars kilims, Yörük weavings, Ayvacık tribal pieces.

🎨 Natural Dyes — Doğal Boyalar

For centuries, Anatolian weavers dyed their yarns exclusively with plants, insects, and minerals. These natural dyes do not fade uniformly — they develop a patina over time, colours deepening and harmonising in a way synthetic dyes never achieve. The DOBAG project (1981, Ayvacık) was the first modern initiative to revive 100% natural dye carpet weaving in Turkey.

🏗️ Loom Types — Tezgah Çeşitleri

The loom (tezgah) is the fundamental structure that holds the warp threads under tension while the weaver ties knots. Different loom types suit different contexts — nomadic life, village workshops, or imperial factories.

🔧 Weaving Tools — Dokuma Araçları

Each tool in the weaver's hands has been refined over centuries. Together they form a complete system — from preparing the warp to finishing the pile.

Loom

Tezgah

The main frame that holds warp threads under tension. The foundation of all carpet and kilim production. Can be horizontal (nomadic) or vertical (village/workshop). Size determines the maximum carpet dimensions.

Weaving Comb / Beater

Kirkit

A heavy comb-like tool — typically metal-toothed with a wooden or metal handle. After each row of knots is tied and the weft thread passed through, the kirkit is struck downward to pack the knots tightly together. The density of the blow determines the carpet's firmness and knot count. One of the most characteristic sounds of a carpet workshop.

Weaving Knife

Dokuma Bıçağı

A small hooked knife used to cut the yarn after each knot is tied around the warp threads. The hook allows quick cutting at a consistent length. Skilled weavers can tie and cut up to 10,000 knots per day. The sharpness of the knife directly affects pile uniformity.

Pile Scissors

Hav Makası

Wide, adjustable scissors used to shear the pile to an even height after each completed row — and for the final finishing of the whole carpet. The pile height determines the carpet's texture: low pile gives crisp pattern definition; higher pile gives softness and warmth.

Drop Spindle

İğ / Kirmen

A weighted stick used to spin raw wool fibre into yarn by hand. In traditional production, women spun all yarn by hand before weaving. The twist of the yarn (S-twist or Z-twist) affects the carpet's texture and light reflection. Hand-spun yarn has natural irregularities that give antique carpets their characteristic warmth.

Shed Stick / Heddle

Varagele / Çerçeve

A flat wooden stick or rod inserted between alternate warp threads to create the "shed" — the opening through which the weft thread passes. In kilim and flat-weave, the varagele is raised and lowered to alternate which warps are lifted, creating the interlocking weft patterns.

Warping Frame

Çözgü Levent / Tahar

Used to prepare the warp — measuring and organising the warp threads to the correct length and density before they are stretched onto the loom. Proper warping is critical: uneven tension in the warp produces a distorted carpet that will not lie flat.

Dye Vat

Boya Kazanı

A large copper or iron cauldron used to dye yarn. Wool is first mordanted (usually in alum solution), then submerged in the dye bath. Temperature, duration, and mordant type all affect the final colour. Natural dyeing is an art requiring deep knowledge of plant chemistry.

Wool Cards / Comb

Yün Tarağı / Tarama

Flat paddles or combs with wire teeth used to align and clean raw wool fibres before spinning. Carding removes vegetable matter, loosens fibres, and aligns them for even spinning. Traditionally done by women by hand — a fundamental step that determines yarn quality.

Design Cartoon

Desen Kartonu / Nakış Kağıdı

A graph-paper design drawn to scale, with each square representing one knot. The weaver follows this colour-coded chart row by row. In village and tribal weaving, patterns are memorised and passed down orally; the cartoon is used in workshop and palace production for complex designs.

🪢 Knot Types — Düğüm Çeşitleri

The strength of a rug lies in its knots. Two primary knot types define Anatolian and Persian traditions — each producing different qualities of durability and pattern precision.

📊 Knot Density — What the Numbers Mean

⚙️ The Production Process — Üretim Aşamaları

From raw wool to finished carpet — a traditional Anatolian hand-knotted carpet passes through eight distinct stages, each requiring specialised knowledge.

1. Shearing (Kırkım): Wool is sheared from the sheep — ideally in spring for the finest kurk quality. The fleece is washed, sorted by fibre length and quality.
2. Carding (Tarama): Cleaned wool is combed with wire cards to align fibres, remove debris, and prepare for spinning.
3. Spinning (Eğirme): Fibres are twisted into yarn using a drop spindle (iğ) or spinning wheel. The twist direction (S or Z) and tightness affect the yarn's character and the carpet's sheen.
4. Mordanting (Mordan): Spun yarn is boiled in a mordant solution (usually alum/şap) to prepare it to accept dye. Different mordants shift the same dye to different colours.
5. Dyeing (Boyama): Mordanted yarn is submerged in the dye bath and simmered. Temperature, duration, and dye concentration are controlled by the dyer's experience. Yarn is then rinsed and hung to dry in the sun.
6. Warping (Çözgü): Warp threads are measured, tensioned, and mounted on the loom. Correct warping is critical — uneven tension produces a distorted carpet.
7. Knotting (Düğümleme): The weaver ties each knot individually around the warp threads, row by row, following the design. After each row: a weft thread is passed through, then the kirkit is used to beat the row firmly downward. Pile is trimmed with scissors to maintain even height.
8. Finishing (Bitirme): The completed carpet is cut from the loom. Ends are secured, the pile is sheared to final height and evenness, the carpet is washed in running water, and dried flat in the sun. The wash softens the wool and brings out the natural lustre of the dyes.