The owner (on the right, below) has greatly expanded his business after taking over from his father, and has now trained about 2,000 Turkish Nomad women (after determining the men were too unreliable) to weave these beautiful rugs. They come first to the center for a few months, where they are given a rudimentary education and taught to read and write. They then all work from home, and employees go around supplying materials and collecting finished rugs.Steve is inspecting some of the natural dye-stuffs used to create the beautiful colors.
The business even grows its own mulberry trees and raises the silkworms for the silk rugs. The silk is taken directly from the cocoons and skeined.
A couple of sample looms were set up for demonstration. The weaver is working to the patterns seen in the diagrams. The rug colors are looped above.
I learned to tie the special knots, although not nearly as fast as the weavers.
The center has a large room where completed rugs are available for purchase. The owner gave a lecture, with luscious samples, of rug complexity, from 1 to 10. Number 1 is the simple Kilim with a flat surface, followed by increasing complexity and textures in wool.
These are samples of the 8s and 9s, with complex patterns and cashmere and silk yarns.
This photo shows a reversible rug.
This is Number 10, a woven picture. You can see the fringe at top and bottom. You had to touch it to realize it was not canvas but actually knotted.
No comments:
Post a Comment