The Magic Turkish Carpet

The carpet in Eileen's office:
Wool with silk highlights

Watching Turkish women make carpets is watching magic happen.  Sitting in front of a loom, the women pull lengths of thread through the warp, tie a knot, then repeat the process. Occasionally, they glance at a pattern or reach for another color of yarn or shear loose threads to reveal the pile. Magically, intricate patterns begin to appear in the wool, the silk or the combination of wool or silk that will make up the finished carpet.

The carpet in David's office: No dyes. 

The colors are the natural wool colors.

Weaving is the last step in carpet making. We  watched wool yarn being dyed, using natural dyes (brown from tobacco leaves, for example) and almost-invisible silk thread being unwound from silkworm cocoons. (Synthetic dyes are more effective on silk than natural dyes.)

This magic is the result of centuries of carpet making, passed from mother to daughter through generations of Turkish women and of the cooperative we were visiting. The co-op was founded 25 years ago and is part of the Turkish Cultural Ministry. It draws women from nine villages in the rural area. The women work five days a week, eight hours a day. Because the cooperative recognizes the intensity and physical stamina required for carpet making, the women weave one hour and rest one hour. They earn a good salary, have health care, paid medical leave and a way of contributing to their families incomes.

The women we watched are empowered artistically and economically. And that's the real magic in Turkish carpets.

Tying knots to make a carpet.

Shearing yarn to create the pile.

Dyed yarns hang above baskets of natural materials for dyeing.

Watching silk thread being
unwound from a cocoon.

The silk weaver.
Silk weavers are even more skillful than wool weavers.