Magic Carpet Ride

"They say" that no trip to Turkey is complete without a serious carpet encounter. Carpets everywhere - wall coverings, cushion coverings, inside, outside. The colours are rich and the patterns are traditional.

 

Inside the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum
some of these carpets date back to 16 century AD 

On every street, in every shop there are carpets for sale and everyone is anxious to entice you into see them. "Where are you from?" or "Are you sisters?" any form of conversation to get you talking and perhaps into the shop. It became a game with us. Even on our tours we taken to see how carpets are made - "no pressure - just information".













Our first encounter of a serious nature was in Istanbul on our second day. We were taken to a shop not far from our hotel. We are told by our guide Mustafa that we are "under no pressure to buy", just to sit and have a cup of tea and learn about how carpets are made and look at some examples. We get our tea and see many carpets that are unfurled with skill as we hear about double knots (Turkish knots), flat knots (Persian knots) and kilims, hand dying wool and the colours and patterns from the different regions of Turkey. After ooing and awing we escape.

Our next carpet encounter comes on day 8 of our time in Turkey. We are taken to a carpet cooperative weaving centre. We are told how they die the wool and silk for the carpets using natural dyes. They take some time to tell us about the silk worm, how it was brought to Turkey from China, how they get the silk from the cocoon.  

Pictures showing the various stages of the silk work cycle

Silk worm cocoons




"Reeling is a technique whereby live cocoons are placed in hot water, and boiled for five to ten minutes to kill the worm. To get the highest quality silk, the temperature of the water must be lowered before the reeling begins, so cold water is added. A brush is used to catch a strand from each of the cocoons and the silk is pulled off the cocoon in a single strand while the cocoon is still in the hot water. Those strands then are moved to a simple roll-up apparatus that creates four bunches of silk threads."

The silk is pulled together

Run over this hook

Pulled through and onto a skeiner

To make a Turkish knot or double knot, the yarn is passed between two adjacent warps, brought back under one, wrapped around both forming a collar, then pulled through the center so that both ends emerge between the warps. These ladies fingers move so fast - knot made and cut with the small knife held in her right hand.



 

These shears cut the pile evenly with the top of
the carpet - the little comb pushes all the knots
tight

We are offered Turkish coffee, apple tea and even Raki. They bring out carpet after carpet but again "no pressure to buy - just look - ask questions - walk on them". Carpet after carpet is unfurled and thrown through the air at our feet. After an eternity - and some people buying and we escape once again.

 

The next visit we make is on day 10 and although not on our itinerary, our guide wants to take us to a small carpet cooperative for a demonstration. This is truly a no pressure place. They did not even mention buying. They just showed us how they got the silk from the cocoon, how they dyed the wool using natural dyes - we even got to see the various plant matter that they used and a description of the mordants that setup the colours into the wool or the silk. We were shown some beautiful carpets and I came so close to asking "how much" but I bit my tongue. When we left here Tracy said to me that is the last time she is going to see a carpet place and if I am seriously going to buy - I am going by myself - fair enough.

Okay so we avoided all and any mention of carpets until - UNTIL - we visited the one place that was on my list to see while we were in Turkey. I found this wonderful blog on felting in Turkey - Ikonium Studio. Their felting is fabulous. On our last few days in Istanbul we took part of a day to find it and have a look.

 

Mehmet and Theresa generously showed us how to felt on to a silk scarf. They talked to us about dying wool and about the hats and bags that they create. We had such a wonderful time.  

Coloured pieces of wool are applied front and back
to a wet silk scarf

Mehmet is rolling the scarf to felt the wool

 

We are treated to a wonderful lunch of tomatoes, grape leaves, lamb and bread. During our meal the subject of the various uses that they have for the wool that they dye and the conversation turned to carpets.

 

 They had some upstairs that are made in the Taurus Mountains near Konya out of their wool. Of course I wanted to see - Tracy and Cheryl leave for a bit - I look -  we talk - finally I am asking "How much?" and "do you have any smaller ones - say 4 x 6". I spy this beautiful kilim. YES - I bought it.

 

 

 

This is going to sit in my office when and if I get one - but for now it is in the living room in front of the fireplace.

The piece is woven warp and weft with 70% taurus mountain sheep wool and 30% mohair. The hand symbol is a powerful woman symbol, good for fertility and prosperity, warding off the evil eye and aiding in household tasks! I believe there is also symbols depicting the carnation, the female shape, hands on hips, the star, running water. The colors are all natural dyes, indigo for the blue, madder root for reds, orange and browns, and weld for yellow...overdyeing weld with indigo gives the muddy green.