Wool has been a staple in human life for centuries, and one of its most versatile derivatives is felt—a non-woven material created through the process of felting.
The origins of felting are difficult to pinpoint, but legend has it that the biblical figure Noah was the first to discover felt when he found a layer of compacted wool under the hooves of sheep aboard the Ark. Regardless of its origins, the felting technique became widely used among sheep-breeding communities.
Felt production spread extensively across the southern belt of Eurasia, reaching as far as European countries. The earliest known examples of felt products date back to Anatolia and Sumer in the mid-3rd millennium BC. However, felt held particular significance for the nomads of Central Asia, becoming integral to their culture and way of life. The oldest surviving Asian felt artifacts date back to the 8th century BC.
The felt products of the region’s peoples are diverse, including floor, wall, and dome coverings for yurts, clothing, horse equipment, and various bags essential for the daily life of nomadic herders. This versatile material, known for its breathability and low thermal conductivity, was used for protection against heat and cold, in rituals, and throughout life’s milestones—from birth to death. It was worn and used to transport household items.
Having mastered the felting technique, nomads advanced beyond their sedentary neighbors by developing various methods of artistic decoration for felt products. Techniques such as rolling patterns into felt and other decorative methods allowed for the creation of products with diverse ornamentation. Ancient felt carpets already showcase this variety of technological techniques.
Felt Artifacts in Textile History
The most famous of them are the products from the Pazyryk burial mounds, left to us by the inhabitants of the Altai Mountains, who lived in the 6th-3rd centuries BC, as well as a carpet from the Hunnic burial mound in Noin-Ula (2nd-1st centuries BC; Mongolia). These rarities are now exhibited in the State Hermitage Museum (Russia).
A remarkable Pazyryk felt cloth, likely used as a curtain or tent section, is particularly noteworthy for its dimensions – measuring nearly 30 square meters with a thickness of 3mm. These measurements provide insights into the impressive scale of noble dwellings of that era. The cloth’s artistic merit is equally remarkable, featuring vertical panels depicting royal investiture scenes: a goddess seated on a throne, holding a flowering branch, greeting a rider. The detailed imagery shows expressive silhouettes created from vibrant, multicolored felt pieces, secured to the base with needle work and reinforced with twisted sinew thread. Embroidery provides additional decorative elements in select areas.
The cloth features three narrow separating panels that repeat a cross-shaped motif with horn-shaped curls—a design that would become iconic in Central Asian art, essentially serving as a “mandala of the Steppe.” This motif, later known as kuchkorak, carried powerful protective and benevolent symbolism. The Pazyryk people are widely recognized as having achieved unparalleled mastery in appliqué carpet manufacturing.
In the equally famous shirmel (the Mongolian name for yurt rugs) found in the Hun burial site of Noin-Ula, the design emphasizes minimalism with even rows and accentuated contour lines. This influenced the carpet’s coloring, as the artisans did not need to use contrasting color combinations to highlight the pattern’s expressiveness. The color scheme of these carpets tends toward softness, often appearing monochrome.
Despite differences in technology and composition, these carpets share a common style known in Steppe art as the “animal” style. This style is characterized by the stylization of figures, emphasizing the expressiveness and distinctiveness of silhouettes. These artifacts demonstrate that by the latter half of the 1st millennium BC, felt-making had evolved into a sophisticated craft with diverse decorative techniques.
Felt and Paper: An intriguing historical connection exists between felt-making and papermaking. Chinese artisans developed paper by studying and refining felting techniques learned from their nomadic neighbors during the 1st-2nd centuries AD. This connection is linguistically preserved in various terms for paper: Kagaz (Arabic); Kagiz (Persian); Kigiz (Turkic, meaning felt or koshma). These etymological links provide additional evidence for the historical significance of felt-making and its influence on other technological developments in the region.
Felt in the Middle Ages
Numerous written sources provide evidence of felt production in Central Asia. For instance, in late antique Tokharistan (3rd-5th centuries A.D.), patterned felts adorned with gold threads were crafted and sent to China as tribute. During the Middle Ages, as noted by al-Muqaddasi (10th century) and Nizam al-Mulk (11th century), felt production was prevalent in many cities across the region. In Samarkand, there was even a street dedicated to felt makers.
Research by Larisa Kulakova, head of the Central Asia section of the State Hermitage Museum, revealed Central Asian felt patterns on European tapestries, suggesting that medieval felt carpets were luxury items coveted by European nobility.
By the late medieval period, felt production was primarily in the hands of semi-sedentary cattle breeders, who constituted a significant portion of the population. Today, the traditions of this applied art continue among the heirs of the Great Steppe culture—Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Turkmens, Uzbeks, and Karakalpaks. Each nation maintains its own distinctive features in felting, despite a shared tradition.
Felts with Rolled Patterns: Technical Process
The most widespread and ancient technique for producing ornamented felts is the rolling or piling of patterns. This method is well-documented in literature. Typically, sheep’s wool from the fall shearing is used for its durability, or coarser goat wool is used for the base to provide greater strength. The wool is pre-washed and combed for softness, then dyed in various colors. The prepared wool is laid out on a spread mat or dense tarpaulin cloth to form a pattern. First, the contour lines of the composition are laid out, followed by the background, with wool of the necessary color chosen for each section. The laid-out workpiece is crumpled and covered with a layer of dark, undyed wool, which becomes the underside of the carpet.
Using the mat spread beneath, the future carpet is rolled into a roll and soaked with hot water. The roll is tightly tied, and the main process begins: tamping it with elbows in rolling movements for 1-2 hours. Felting and pressing cause the wool fibers to adhere strongly due to their scaly layer, or cuticle, resulting in a dense, homogeneous mass.
The next day, the process is repeated. The carpet is rolled up with the pattern inside, without an auxiliary cloth, and rolled again with hot water. The quality of the felt carpet depends on the intensity and duration of rolling.
The compositions and designs of felt carpets with rolled patterns are influenced by the technique used—patterns are typically large and simple, with smooth lines and blurred contours.
A carpet with a dongyul composition. Baisun, Surkhandarya, 2002. Photo by the author
Kyrgyz and Kazakh carpets with felted decoration—ala-kiyiz and tekemets—were made using the aforementioned technology, common among all Steppe peoples. These carpets often feature horn-shaped and meander motifs, classic in nomadic art. They were primarily used to cover floors in yurts and later in stationary homes.
Ala-kiyiz. Kyrgyz. The twentieth century. Photo from open Internet sources
Appliqué Felts
Appliqué felts showcase a technique where patterns, often featuring curvilinear or geometric motifs, are stitched or embroidered from multicolored felt pieces. These patterns frequently carry protective and benevolent meanings, reflecting the aesthetic and cultural values of the steppe people.
The Kazakhs also practiced the appliqué technique, creating carpets known as tekemets. For the applied parts, they used half-rolled cloths of pre-dyed wool (taldyrma), from which patterns were cut and rolled into the base of the future carpet. Appliqué could also be made from cloth, velvet, or cotton fabric, resulting in tekemets known as oyuly tekemet (cut tekemet).
Felt Carpets and Kurak
Interestingly, this method is technologically and artistically similar to another type of steppe needlework—patchwork (kurak, from kurau, meaning to sew or join). In both cases, the patterned composition is sewn from parts of contrasting colors, whether fabric scraps or pre-cut felt pieces. Some compositions are identical for both kuraks and felts, suggesting shared aesthetic techniques in these traditional textiles.
Appliqué on a felt base made of felt, fabric, or leather allowed for the creation of diverse patterns and detailed scenes, unrestricted by the requirements of the piling technique.
Embroidered Felts
Embroidered felts are among the most artistically and technically expressive, yet forgotten, types of felt carpets. Historically, embroidery complemented appliqué products (as seen in the Pazyryk carpet). Over time, embroidered felts became an independent group, often characterized by a combination of design techniques. The technique of piling (preparing the carpet’s base) is supplemented by appliqué (joining large, contrasting details that form the decorative framework) and multicolored embroidery, which embellishes these details. This results in a unique product that combines quilting and embroidery, creating a two-plane pattern: a large appliqué pattern in the foreground and a kaleidoscope of smaller embroidered details in the background. Both felt and embroidery share common decorative elements and color schemes, typical of Steppe art, featuring motifs like swirling rosettes, meanders, stars, and horn-shaped designs.
The ability to embroider on felt attests to the high quality of wool felting, transforming the fiber mass into a suitable base for silk embroidery.
Embroidered felt rugs, like appliqué rugs, are no longer produced. This tradition has faded along with the nomadic culture itself. Surviving specimens are found in museum and private collections, such as the British Museum in London and the Linden Museum in Stuttgart.
Both Kazakhs and Kyrgyz treat felt carpets with embroidery as the most valuable. Such are tuskiyizi (wall felt carpet in Kazakh) or tushkiyizi (Kyrgyz), intended exclusively for decorating the wall of a yurt or house. The combination of mosaics, appliqué (with velvet, fur or leather) and embroidery, sometimes with the use of semi-precious stones (see “coral” tus-kiyiz from the collection of the Kasteev State Museum of Fine Arts in Almaty, Kazakhstan) made these items genuine masterpieces of folk art. As a rule, a tus-kiyiz/tush-kiyiz was hung above the bed, decorating and magically protecting its space, and had a reverse U-shaped composition. The lower part was left unformed. This approach showed the practicality of steppe women who saved resources and time.
A Continuous Tradition
In a private collection, there is a Kungrat embroidered carpet from the early 20th century that features a design echoing the famous felt with a royal rider from Pazyryk. Despite being separated by nearly 23 centuries, these carpets share a common element: the figure of the rider, combined with a motif in the form of a rhombus with horn-shaped curls (in the first fragment, below the rider; in the second, to the left of the rider). These fragments clearly demonstrate both continuity and the changes that occurred in the art of the steppe peoples across different historical epochs.
Mosaic Felts
Steppe cultures favored the mosaic technique for producing patterned felts, exemplified by Kyrgyz shyrdaks and Kazakh syrmaks. The mosaic method, or inlaying, involves sewing pre-cut pattern details from two pre-prepared panels of different colors (usually white and black). The cut-out patterns from one panel are sewn into the base of the second panel and vice versa, resulting in two identical patterns that are oppositional in color. The sewing process also includes stitching—shyryk (hence the name shyrdak)—and delineation with cord or thread, which serves a decorative function and enhances the product’s durability.
As with other types of ornamented felts, the decor of shyrdaks and syrmaks embodies notions of magical protection and good wishes. The black-and-white positive-negative patterns represent the cosmos of nomads, depicting a world composed of the deified Heaven and Earth. These elements are equal and exist in an inseparable connection. The unity and interdependence of all things—male and female, day and night—are figuratively expressed in the patterns of the mosaic carpet.
Everything in felt carpets is imbued with protective magic—from the wool, which is believed to repel scorpions with its scent, to the patterns, which, despite their abstract form, are connected to the real world and the life of the Steppe.
Evolution and Revival of Felt Crafts
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Central Asian felt carpets displayed remarkable diversity in both types and techniques, including: rolled patterns, appliqué work, embroidered designs, and mosaic compositions. However, during the twentieth century, the traditions of felting weakened considerably. Since the early 2000s, efforts to revive these traditions have been underway, with each country taking its own approach.
Kyrgyzstan has successfully promoted its felt brand on an international scale. A decisive factor was the Central Asian Program for the Sustainable Development of Mountain Regions (CAMP, 2002-2008), funded by the Swiss government. As part of the program, European designers specializing in felt were invited to Kyrgyzstan. Artisans from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan participated as trainees. Under the mentorship of foreign experts, they learned new technologies and explored new possibilities for a material deeply rooted in local cultures. A highlight of the program was the introduction of the silk felting technique. Silk and wool, which had already been combined in local embroidered felts, were now used in a new, innovative context, spurring the development of the fashion industry. Lightweight felted products, more suited to modern households, are replacing traditional heavy post-weaving rugs. Jewelry, toys, scarves, and stoles made of silk with felt patterns are becoming specialties of Kyrgyz fashion designers. Modern Kyrgyz shyrdaks are also in demand abroad.
In 2012, the Kyrgyz traditional art of making felt carpets—shyrdaks and ala-kiyiz—was included by UNESCO in the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Kazakhs are also actively entering the international market with their felt products. The Western world has highly appreciated the properties of this material, which is ecologically clean and organic.
Of course, there are challenges in this craft, primarily related to the availability of quality material. The wool of merino and fine-fleece sheep, which has been sharply reduced in favor of coarse-wooled breeds more profitable for multiplication and maintenance, is in short supply. Despite these challenges, felt-making demonstrates remarkable potential for continued development and innovation, bridging traditional craftsmanship with contemporary design needs.
Reference sources:
- Komarova O. General and special in felting technology among the peoples of Siberia, Kazakhstan and Bashkiria. Materials of the All-Russian Conference. Tomsk, 2009
- Kamoliddin Sh. Metallurgy and handicraft production among the ancient Turks. Tashkent, 2016.
- Tsareva E. Felts of Eurasia. http://www.kunstkamera.ru/files/lib/5-02-026468-7/5-02-026468-7_11.pdf
