Alkhiamiah

The ‘Khiamiah’ handcraft is one of the oldest crafts, that emerged in Muiz street in Cairo. This craft became most famous during the Fatimid period in Egypt. The ‘Khiamiha’ craftsmen were actually part of the fabric industry in Egypt. The tools used in this craft are the ‘costiban’ – which is a copper piece the craftsman wears on his middle finger to protect it from the needle – blades, pencils, colored strings, scissors, needle, talc powder, colored fabric and hard paper.
The stages of the ‘Khiamiah’ craft includes:
1) Designing:
Piercing a hard piece of paper as per the design; the design may include from 6-8 repeated segments.
2) ‘Tathrib’; dusting:
In this stage the craftsman spreads talc or carbon powder on the pierced hard paper holding the design and placed on the fabric. Hence when the paper is removed the design is printed on the fabric.
3) Implementation:
The craftsman begins by cutting the colored pieces of fabric leaving an extra one cm, then he sews on the base fabric holding the design.
4) Showcasing the fabric in the shop.

The ‘khimiah’ product varies in size, shape and prices. The duration of crafting differs and may reach one month for a 2.25m*2.25 m piece.

There are phronic, Coptic, Islamic and folkloric designs of the ‘Khimaiah’.
There are various uses for ‘Khimaiah’:
1) ‘khiam firasha’ used for making a kind of yurt for religious celebrations.
2) Scouting tents.
3) Soldiers tents.
4) Sufism flags
5) Tombs covers.
6) Wall decorations
7) Curtains and tables cloths
8) Clothes.
9) Safari bags.
10) Umbrellas
11) Cars covers

The challenge

Manufacturing tents and very special decorative fabrics from simple white fabric, springs and colored pieces of cloths.

'Khiamiah' is a traditional fabric craft. This handcraft was initiated for preparing the fabric of white tents. Then craftsmen started in developing their craft by weaving and inlaying colored fabric.