Arts and crafts in Sirence and in Secuk.

We have seen a lot of evidence of traditional arts and crafts in the area.  At the weekend market women were selling hand knitted socks and toys, artificial flower crowns for the hair and crocheted tops.  Our hotel had local craft on display.

 

 Today, we decided to visit Sierince, a nearby hill town which has become a tourist attraction because of its attractive houses, which are now being renovated by rich Istanbul residents as holiday houses.  We caught one of the regular buses which travel up to the village, passing through the rich farming country filled with orchards of pomegranates, lemons, oranges, apricots, peaches and olives into the hills.  The village, seen from downhill is certainly very pretty. 

  

 

 Once you get out of the bus and start walking, you realise that though it is still the centre of a farming community, the locals are taking advantage of the influx of tourists by turning their homes into pensions or cafes or shops.  We spent quite a while just walking round exploring and watching the incredible amount of renovation going on using traditional methods and materials.  

There is the usual tourist stuff available, and the little old ladies in traditional gear certainly trade in on their cuteness, 

but there is some individuality too.  The man who designed jewellery for the movie, "Troy", cashes in on his experience by selling some of his own creations, as well as more traditional jewellery.  It was mostly a bit bling for me, but I did find the zultanite stone jewellery intriguing since it changes colour according to the light.  Mostly though, I loved looking the old tools which were still on display like this one for scraping:

 

 And, I liked the fact that people were still making things to sell or decorate their homes, whether they be dried wild flower crowns 

or wildflower hearts

 

or pine cone and  lichen hearts,

  felted rugs, 

 

rosewater, 

 socks,

or a piece of wall art using a bit of kitchen grate and found objects.

Once we had seen most of the village, we went back down to Selcuk and  following the advice of one of the cafe owners, wandered past the mosque through farmland to a camp park which also, incongruously, acts as a weaving school for women in the area,

 and a training centre for men in the traditions and selling of carpets, plus a repair centre for old carpets 

and a centre for distributing carpets to retailers throughout Turkey.  Although we kept being assured that it was not a sale room, but rather a centre which also teaches tourists how to assess and appreciate carpets, there was certainly a lot of hard sell going on as well.  However, we were also shown the hand dyed wool which was used

 

 

and were also given an opportunity to try knot tying ourselves, 

We also watched how the retaining yarns were woven in and  pushed tight and the tufts trimmed by a very nice teacher.

We watched how the pattern was followed from a chart:

 

Once inside the display room, we were offered Turkish coffee, while a young assistant displayed examples of various styles of carpet by spinning them into the air and onto the floor with a deft flick of  the hand, and we  learned a lot about the difference between a Kilim and a knotted carpet and a silk carpet, the importance of looking at the back as well as the front,

 

 and the influence on region on design.

They were really beautiful and if I had tons of money, I would have bought quite a few.