The culture of Turkish carpets
Before marriage, while mastering the textile arts, young girls create the ceyiz, a dowry collection of beautiful things that will be useful in their future homes. A girl might knit socks and create a heybe, a saddlebag, for her husband to carry over his shoulder at the market in a public display of her domestic skills; she will embroider towels and weave pillows, carpets and wall hangings. Her new home will be decorated with memories of her girlhood and family. As she looks at her kilims she will see herself and her sisters and her neighbors woven together in affection. While creating the ceyiz in youth, the weaver makes things that, if necessary, can later be sold to benefit her new family.
Except at harvest when all
hands are busy in the fields, a carpet is rising on the loom in every house, and
when the sun is up, at least two women are at work. Most weaving is done by
girls and women between the ages of 14 and 26 who form together into a special
community of work within each neighborhood of the village. They move fluidly in
and out of each other's homes with no need to knock. They come to visit and when
they visit, they sit and weave. Their fathers and husbands are away in the
fields or sitting in the teahouse. A young girl learns gradually in childhood by
sitting beside her mother, her sister, the other women of the village; she
learns by watching and by absorbing what is going on around her. The master
weaver must begin to learn early and build the art into her process of growth.
In this
way, she learns the habits of the hand that make the work easy rather
than self-conscious, and thus gains the ability for innovation and mastery.