It was all serendipitous, but we actually bought some carpets! We were so busy buying the carpets I took very few photos. It was really all shopping and buying! We did have a lovely adventure along the way, but the final stop was a carpet shop and that’s where I’ll start. Next email I’ll write about our trip to Datca and Knidos.
Ru
DoraMac
Carpets We Bought near Turgut Turkey on May 24, 2011 Turgutkoy Hali
We went west along the peninsula to Datca to look at carpets. We had visited a shop in Turgut during our first carpet expedition and wanted to visit their second shop in Datca. Turns out there was no longer a second shop in Datca, but we visited other shops and enjoyed our stay and hope to go back with DoraMac. On our way home we decided to stop in Turgut to revisit the first shop and to have lunch at the small beach resort we’d liked so well our first trip. We saw one carpet at the shop that Randal really liked, but the price was wrong and I didn’t love it. Nothing else was the right size, color or pattern. Lunch was wonderful. We could choose chicken or fish and chose chicken and they made us a wonderful lunch with vegetables, pasta, chicken, bread. After lunch we were given directions back to Marmaris that would take us through some lovely villages rather than down the newer highway. We had time so decided to go that way. Shortly after we had left Turgut and turned onto the road towards Bozburun rather than to Marmaris, we saw a carpet showroom, Turgutkoy Hali – Carpet Village. So we stopped. We saw. We bought!
Carpets displayed along the side of the country road between Turgut and Bozburun.
We stopped and parked the motorbike and entered the large complex. Someone came to greet us and once they knew we were interested, they found a salesman to help us whose native language was English. Steff Archer is a Brit who is married to a Turkish woman and they live in Marmaris. He was extremely knowledgeable and answered our questions, listened to our requirements and with his knowledge of his stock showed us wonderful carpets. He was serious but not pushy. He learned our price range and showed us carpets in that range. Steff gave us a tour of the complex starting with the women at the looms who were for illustrative purposes and for training. 1600 women from area villages have been trained as weavers. He explained the pay scale; they earn about $400 in a month. They work about 6 hours a day, 6 days a week. They work during the winter mostly; in summer they farm and do other chores leaving them little time to weave. Their husbands work for area resorts and earn about the same amount of money but work much longer hours each day. Women who work with silk thread work fewer hours because the work is more intricate, difficult and harder on eyes and hands. Rugs can be wool on wool, wool on cotton, silk on ? and mercerized cotton that looks like silk but is less expensive than silk. Our carpets are wool on cotton and Steff said they carpet should last about 30 or 40 years. We told him that would be quite long enough! We didn’t opt to pay for carpets that would last 200 or 300 years. No expensive carpet should start its life our boat! Not with hatches left open and saltwater or boatyard grit coming in.
An example of the vats used for dying yarn with natural substances for the colors.
Natural dyes last longer than synthetic dyes. Whatever is at hand in the area where carpets are made is used for the dye. Saffron, indigo, acorn husks, and other flowers, leaves, or bark or the natural un-dyed wool of the brown or black, or white sheep all can be used.
Our galley had the hardest to find measurements so we always start with it first. We found one with this pattern and both really like it. It is a design motif and colors from the Heleke region near Istanbul. I initially said that I didn’t want the other carpets with the same design but then we found we liked it better than anything else so we went with all four pieces of the same design. Randal is kneeling on what will be our saloon carpet. A coffee table will sit in the middle. The carpet colors are dark enough so that the runner, which is in the galley won’t show too many spills! Also the engine room opens off the galley. We saw a beautiful runner for over $2,000 but I wouldn’t have one that expensive in the galley, or anywhere in our boat for that matter. Or at home with dogs and cats!
A closer look at the pattern.
We had looked at the carpet on the left in a different shop earlier in the day and Randal really liked it but I didn’t love it and the first price was way too high. I didn’t like the salesman either. But they are similar and maybe we would have liked it with our runner pattern. But the coffee table would have covered up the medallion prayer rug design anyway so why pay for it? We looked at other carpets with similar colors and medallions but I didn’t like them as well as what we bought. The salesmen had his helpers spin the carpet around so we could see the nap in a different light. One way is light and one is dark. Spinning is done one-handed with a flip of the wrist and lots of arm muscle! Randal tried and it hardly spun at all. Then the carpets were taken to a room set up like a home with a wood floor so we could see how they would look. We had tea. Then Randal and Steff started to negotiate. There is room to “deal” when you buy a $50,000 carpet. When you buy carpets like ours you pretty much pay the price first quoted. Steff told us that tour groups come and no one wants to hear that one group got better prices than another so prices are pretty fixed based on the formula for wages paid and the materials used. We did get a “discount” for paying cash because I guess it saves the business the fee credit card companies charge. As it was, the cost matched what we had seen other places, but here we trusted we were getting what we paid for because they were new “production line” carpets made by the women trained and paid by this company. We knew we were getting wool on cotton and natural dyes. That was important to us. Not that any of the other people weren’t trust worthy. I am sure Iskender was completely honest in his dealings with us. But he had a smaller, more specialized selection. Large shops like the one where we bought our carpets work with the Turkish government and tour groups so it is a bit more regulated. Their carpets might not have the stories attached, but they are sturdy enough to stand life on a boat and we really like them. They called our name and DoraMac’s too.
3416 TL initial price
3000 TL final deal: 87.82 % because we paid cash
1032 TL Saloon
167 TL each for the small carpets
509 TL for the galley runner
Exchange Rate was about $1.60 per TL though in Datca the afternoon before we were told it was $1.40
The carpets will be delivered to us Thursday evening. Randal is gung-ho to redo the floors but I just want to wash them and leave them as is for a while. He has other boat work to do that isn’t just cosmetic so more important. We’ll see.
Now when we travel we can look at those lovely, colorful painted plates and we can learn about olive oil! We’ll find something else to learn about and still look at carpets. We could always use them in our cabin!
Ru
Doramac
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