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Kilims and rugs, differences
In the East, in parallel to the knotting of carpets, kilims have also been woven which, although in principle, were only for domestic use and considered of inferior category compared to any carpet, over time they have made a place for themselves in the market and currently have great acceptance among the public, especially in the West.
Although both are pieces made for a common purpose, covering the floor while decorating our home, workplace, public places … they have great differences between them, which we will clarify in this article.
The main difference between a rug and a kilim is that the rug is a fabric with a layer of pile on top while the kilim is just a fabric, like a thick fabric but never with pile.
This difference is generated by the unequal process of elaboration that both elements have. See:
The carpet is made on a skeleton or base formed by vertical threads (warp) nailed to a wooden frame called a loom and on that warp knots are made, generally made of wool and sometimes silk, once a row of knots is finished (from left to right of the loom) a horizontal thread called a weft is placed that runs through, entering and exiting, through the warps with the purpose of securing the knots and preventing them from moving.
Once the weft is over, we make another row of knots, after which the weft goes down again and so on until the carpet is finished.
1 Structure of a rug. Vertical threads (warp) on which there are knots, which are held by horizontal threads (weft).
The knot is made according to a particular technique but, in a way, it is reminiscent of the knot of a shoelace, where the “ball” is visible on the back of the carpet and the “hairs” are those that remain on the front of the carpet. That is why when we turn a carpet we see thousands of balls that are nothing more than the knots made on the warp.
2 Reverse of a carpet in which we see the thousands of knots in the form of "balls"
So… what about kilim? The kilim is basically the skeleton of the carpet but without the knots, the kilim is the vertical threads (warp) crossed with the horizontal threads (weft) but without putting knots and therefore it has no hair but is only a fabric, like a thick and rough fabric. This fact is, at the same time, its main advantage and at the same time its main disadvantage: on the one hand it weighs little, is light and gives us a fresh and light image but on the other hand it is less resistant to use and the passage of time and gets dirty much more quickly and also wrinkles more easily.
3 Weft yarn, yellowish crossing the gray warp threads in the fabric of a kilim
Another aspect that contributes to the lower durability of kilim is that their manufacturing technique means that, every time we change the color in the design, we have to leave a small hole in the fabric so if we look at a kilim against the light we will see that it is, literally, full of small holes. These holes, over time, open and this causes the kilim to break faster. This is why there are very few kilims that are really old, more than a hundred years old.
For further clarification I have to point out that in the carpet the warps and wefts, for example cotton (although they can also be silk or wool) are always the same color since they will be hidden under the hair of the knots, however in the kilim, the wefts (the horizontal threads) are of different colors in order to create a design or drawing.
It is also important to explain that carpets and kilims have common cultural and geographical origins: they are woven in the same areas and sometimes by the same populations. It is also interesting to note that in some pieces both techniques coexist and, in this way, pieces appear with some kilim areas and other carpet areas.