LUCK OF THE DRAW.

I'm a rug maker and I still have balls of wool that are waiting to be braided into rugs like this one. Not perfect, but usable. They are thick and hearty and colorful.

Yesterday, I received a phone call from a woman who said, "Are you Mary Matzek? You don't know me but I saw your name in Reminisce Magazine about three years ago. You were looking for a set of rug braiders and I have them. I've been holding onto these looking for that magazine I misplaced, and I finally found it. Do you still want them?"  Her name is Marci Van Riper from Pennsylvania. I told her I'd gotten several sets. I have two sizes, 2 inch and 1 inch. Her set was 1 and 1/2 inch. She was keen on me having them after holding them for me for three years, so I agreed I could make a nice thin rug from old curtains for my bathroom.  She is 87 years old and I readily understood the idea of re-using things, fabric scraps for quilts, old sweaters for hot pads and baby soakers, , old wool coats and pants-never tossing anything that is usable, like rug braiders.



This rug is thin and lies very flat, and it is very special to me. My mother made the center and the next two rows as a small bathoom rug from cottons. The light blue came from her first pair of "slacks" for which she got scolded from her father, because girls didn't wear pants in those days. Years later, I  put on the last row with a pair of maroon pants I loved because the material was stretchable and allowed me to reach the pedals of the plane I was flying. I hated to give them away when they no longer fit. At the time I didn't attach any significance to adding a row to a rug my mother made. After all, it's just an old bath mat. Now, I appreciate that connection. Slacks, that represented something to her and flight pants that meant something to me.



This is also a bathroom rug made from t-shirt strips, hooked through a mesh backing. Rug making is hardly done by hand anymore. I enjoyed making it and using it.

I wanted to pay for the cost of mailing the braiders but Marci would have none of that. She was adamant I not pay for the stamps since her brother had bought from their local post office, every Jenny stamp they had, 12 sheets of $2 stamps. The postal person, said, "you might as well have them all, here is a single left." Stamps then came in glassine bags that you couldn't see through. What he was hoping to snag was one that had been printed upside down. His investment paid off and that last single stamp is now worth $50,000.  He keeps it in a bank vault. She is still spending Jenny's that were correct. I found out she collects stamps and we talked for about 30 minutes. What a marvelous woman she is!
My computer was out and my neighbor, Brian came and fixed it this morning. He suggested I put into a pool for the California Lottery. Normally, I would have said no. But, after hearing about the Jenny, I handed him a ten. Fool, my brain said. Ah, what the heck, maybe my luck will hold.

SOUTH TO MARMARIS AND A CARPETIUM.

Busing overland to Marmaris on the Aegean Sea, we see apartment buildings with solar water. It amazes me how smart and progressive people are.

The terrain is mountainous in part, and beautiful. At one point I saw rock walls similar to those we see in the Motherlode. It reminded me of Calaveras County.

On our way to board our gulet, an old type sailing/motorized vessel, we stop at a Carpetium. Supported by the government to keep ancient hand crafts like this alive, we learn how the famous Turkish Rugs are hand made from silk and wool, a process perfected in Biblical times and handed down from generation to generation.
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Our first stop is the cocoon vat, where live cocoons are floated. If the worm dies the silk cocoon turns grey and unusable. They are floated in this vat and the worker takes a rough brush and grabs at them.
She lifts up her brush with cocoons attachd. You can see the many fibers in the teacher’s hand.

She then takes the fibers and puts them on a hook to the left of the vat.

The hooks are attached to a machine that winds the silken threads into a batt
The batts are then ready to be dyed. The teacher challenged us to try and break a strand of silk with our hands. It looks fragile but no one could break it.
This woman draws and colors in the designs. Most are traditional, some commissioned, some just new innovations to try for something different.
Natural dyes are used for the silk and wool.
Hand made rugs are almost as beautiful on the back as they are the front.

Silk weaving can be so precise, a talented worker can make a picture like this beautiful wall hanging featuring Ephesus as it once looked.

Wool rugs are much coarser and the patterns are not as precise and fine. They still have a wonderful feel, richness and quality to them.

We watched the weavers work from a small design. It is a matter of counting threads. It takes great dedication to your craft to stick with one rug for over a year or more. This woman is working with pure, fine, silk threads.
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All of us were invited to try weaving. The worker slips her fingers under two strands of the warp, she separates them, inserts a strand of silk or wool, makes a simple loop and  knot and drags it down to the bottom of the carpet. Here Joyce B. gives it a try.

You can see a nearly complete row of dyed fibers across the width of this carpet. A weaver does one color at a time. She will come back and fill in the white.

After completing several rows, the worker cuts the excess threads off with a wide, flat scissors.

I’ve made both hooked and braided rugs and I stand in awe of this craft. These women work unbelievably fast; it was hard to see what lightening fast fingers were doing.

In the show room, the crew rolled out about 60 carpets for us to examine. He describes the types. You notice they lift heavy carpets with a double fold at the corners, so not to damage the carpet.
The teacher explains the nap of the carpet.
One of the workers gives a little show while we think about whether we want to buy something or not.

To demonstrate how old some of the carpet patterns are, he showed us a portrait from the London National Gallery of England with a carpet pattern called USHAK draped over the table when a peace agreement was signed between England and Spain. I liked that pattern and color which is more red than in the photo of a photo.

Owen liked this Tree of Life pattern in pure silk.

I ended up with two, the pattern I liked is visible on the left. I bought the one similar, to the right, wool and silk, and the Tree of life.. Ouch, I said after dickering the price down. I won’t tell you how much I paid. Expensive, but they last for a hundred years, with care. I hope my kids take good care of them. And, the rug makers tell you, walk on them. Don’t hang them on your wall. They react well to use.

They fed us an interesting picnic lunch in their yard.

Everything was tasty. Owen, of course, ordered the chicken shish.
We move on to the Gulet after lunch.
To see an album of pictures, click the link below:

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FUN IN THE BANK.

I helped work on the paint job yesterday. I painted five window frames and two doorways,  which required having the doors open to the wonderful, cool weather we had yesterday. My son was having problems with his back and I decided I could do it myself. I enjoyed it, but there are eleven doors in this house and many windows still unpainted. So, we will be at it for two more days, at least.

With open doorways, I decided to get all the projects stowed in boxes under desks and in corners up off  the floor and consider which one to start with. DON’T PUT OFF ‘TIL TOMORROW…  you know what I mean.

A book on brew-tasting I wrote when the craft beer movement first got started. Unsold. I thought I should put it together. Scrapbooks of trips left unfinished. To many to name.

All week long, I’ve washed and sorted through a barrel of wool for rug-making. Braided, hooked and rag rugs are beautiful and long-lasting.

This is an unfinished hooked rug I started too many years ago.

I’ve braided eight area rugs. This one is in my living room. The biggest one I made was four-foot diameter circle rug that I’ve given to a friend.

Two small ones designed to be place in front of chairs so the carpet doesn’t wear down in one noticeable place.

A washable rag rug for the bathroom. It is made of cotton, not wool. I enjoy making rugs and the end result.
I’ll store the wool until cold weather sets in. I didn’t photograph the number of quilts I’ve cut and haven’t sewn. Or art projects unfinished. I’m never bored, as intended. But, I  think I have YEARS of projects on hold. Oh, well. It’s like fun in the bank.