Old Traditions

Here in our town we have lots of free courses. Mostly attended by women, here is one hosted by the chamber of commerce on hand knotted kilims and tapestries.

The huge looms, the yarns and wool are all given to the students so that they can make these pieces without any costs.

It is quite funny how much money is spent on some stuff here, but I do like these courses, there is also one to paint porcelain, silver jewelry and more. It is meant for woman to be able to make some money or create job opportunities. These courses are either hosted by the chamber of commerce or the ministry of education. I have been to many of these kind of courses, they are fun and free and each course gives something new. Mum and I actually first started learning jewelry making in one of these courses. But then continued further with time, practice and other courses and tutorials.

Row by row knot by knot these pieces take weeks, not my cup of tea these would drive me crazy :)

Each region has its own style, patterns and methods to create tapestries.

Would you join this course if it was in your town?

Turkish Traditions

One of the things that makes a different country exotic is often the traditions. In Turkey there are religious holidays but there are also Republic holidays established by the first president of Turkey, Atatürk (litterally translated: Father of all the Turks).
Ome of them is April 23, the day for the children.
This day involves dances prepared for weeks before hand. I think the parents enjoy this more then the children, it is a day that they can proudly show of their child.

I think the children would rather be on their skateboard or playing games on their computer, but they do get alot of extra attention :)

These days are always messy with lots of music and people and food of course.
Funny enough 23rd of April the weather is always sunny and is the start of Summer.

I didn't take much pictures of the dance it self but more of the cute mess beforehand. As it all started much later then anticipated the children started to get tired and overheated with their layers of traditional costumes.

The dances are traditionally a serious act so the children look very serious too, which is quiet funny to look at.

Next holiday will be 19th of May the day of youth and sports, where simular activities will be taken place :)

A la Turka

 

While Turkey is a country that produces its own cotton,and has a large textile industry for the export, it is really hard to find cotton fabrics. Only a few traditional fabrics, like these lovely and colorful flannels are made from cotton.

 

This kind of fabric was first woven in the Haliç neighbourhood in Istanbul in the 1800's. It is called 'pazen' or 'divitin', from the french 'duvet', indicating that it is soft to the touch like a feather.

 

Used mostly for traditional long skirts and şalvars, pazen was never a high fashion product but more used in the country side.

For a very long time, pazen was only used in rural areas with traditional dress, till 2002, when the beautiful Azra Akin became Miss World wearing a pazen dress designed by the couturier Cemil Ipekci. The dress was also choosen best dress in the world competition, and pazen became well known outside Turkey.

Still when we go to fabric shops people often are suprised when we especially ask for pazen, instead of shiny satens and polyester.

We have started a new collection of bags using this traditional fabric and oya, the gorgeous hand made lace used to edge the scarves of the rural women.

This is not the first time that we are using traditional Turkish materials, we blogged about our oya collection several years ago.