Avanos

Page Down Page Up  Back to Thumbnails Turkey Map List Turkey Photos Page 7 of 17
The carpet co-operative, also in Avanos, we found much more interesting.   Jean and I were met at the door and given our very own guided tour which included a demonstration of silk production beginning with the silk worm, taking us through the dyeing spinning and weaving processes to the finished article.
Young women receive training and certification in the traditional skills of carpet weaving.  Turkish carpets are made using the double knotting technique know as gordes.   Carpets are made of silk, wool or cotton.   They may be made of a single material as in cotton on cotton or a mixture of fibers.  These carpets are silk on silk, the most valuable of all. 
Checking her pattern.   

On top of the loom are the hanks of wool being used.  The colour is obtained  from natural animal and vegetable dyes.  Wode for blue, Pomegranate for  Black, Walnut for brown, Chamomile and sage for yellow and madder root for pinks and reds.  All readily available to the nomadic tribes people who have been making carpets in this region  since 400B.C.

The women are the weavers of carpets the men the dyers and repairers.

 
Naturally our wonderful tour ended up in one of the vast showrooms.  We consumed several glasses of apple tea while the sales team  dropped carpet after carpet at our feet.  We were shown, cotton, silk and wool, some produced in the villages some here in the Avanos factory.  The sales pitch was (for Turkey) very low key and we learned a lot about how to choose a carpet. 
Page Down Page Up  Back to Thumbnails Turkey Map List Turkey Photos Page 7 of 17