Recycling Carpets

If one goes to a carpet shop in Turkey chances are you will be looking at vintage carpets from East Anatolia (Turkey), Afghanistan or Iran. Back in the day, the nomads lived in tents and their only way of transporting their goods was to roll them up in a carpet and throw them on the back of a camel. Perhaps this is where the term “carpet baggers” came from although today’s meaning is not taken literally.

Adem, our carpet dealer in Kayserai near Cappadocia, Turkey has been repairing vintage carpets since he was 14, again tradition in the family. We visited his shop in 2022 and he had rooms full of vintage carpets, all different shapes and sizes from all over Eastern Asia. We took our guests for a visit and they chose some carpets but could not leave with the carpet until it was inspected by his technicians (his brother and wife) to make sure it was straight and in good repair. He had just moved his operation to the 3rd floor of a downtown village centre which gave him 3 rooms instead of 2 for storage and 1 room for repair.

Back to Recyling.

When a carpet is too worn out – maybe after 100 years if can be cut up into small pieces to form a runner in the form of a patchwork carpet OR it can be made into kilim cushions square or rectangular. Kilim means flat weave,by the way OR smaller still, kilim satchels for your ipad or kimble OR smaller yet into a small clutch to use as a purse or for doggie treats. They are all very colourful and have symbols most of which have to do with fertility and longevity in life.

Carpets of natural dye-coloured strands of goat hair were new to me. One of the carpets we had in our possession was exactly the same as the one I saw on the tent floor of a Sultan in a period film. Maybe Sultan Mohmed II when he sieged Constantinople in 1453!
Silk carpets are the most expensive and are new as the silk industry still exists at the end of the Silk Road in Constantinople.
Corinne Thomson
Feb. 24, 2024