Zili

Zili is yet another type of Kilim weaving which is marked with a hard, thick & rough appearance & is composed of briest. Normally produced by the nomadic shepherd people, the weaving style is a bit hard for creating designs on it. The very concept & style hasn't undergone much change since the earliest days.

The zili weaving art requires design threads to be applied three on the surface & one below the surface in their own design area. One or more wefts are looped & tightened once the line is completed. The zili method when in diagonal designs, continues to be so with the thread sliding on each line. At times, these are diagonal, oblique & perpendicular designs & are applied in the same weaving. The style is even at times blended with the cicim technique to come up with an innovative design. Woven either on a balanced plain or weft-faced weave having two, three or rarely five warps, these are floated in horizontal sequences by an extra weft.

Zili weaving is found in plain, cross, frameworked & checked zili style of weaving. All these are applied depending upon the different application techniques.

Changes are apparent in old patterns, since, every pattern cannot be applied on the weaving technique of zilis woven in yuruk villages. The weaving styles are preferred in weaving varied home decorative items as in tent articles, crop sacks, cushion, pillow, mats & ground cloth to name a few.