New listings on Etsy! Suzanis, rugs, and more!

Uzbek Samarkand Suzani

I haven't listed anything new in my Etsy shop for months even though the photos were ready before Christmas. Finally, I am jumping in and getting it done!  There are some gorgeous pieces, so I hope you will come and take a look:  Rayela on Etsy.

Moroccan Boucherouite Carpet

Baluchi Tribal Carpet Floor Pillow

New listings on Etsy! Suzanis, rugs, and more!

Rayela Art makes it on Etsy Finds!

Morna alerted me that one of my suzanis made it on Etsy Finds today.  First time ever! Woo hoo!

Although vintage and supplies sellers pay the same amount to sell on Etsy, rarely do we get the attention the handmade sellers do.  Even the search system defaults to handmade, excluding us from search results.  The rationale was that the site was started to benefit artists and crafters and that vintage and supplies are pretty much just a nod of appreciation, categories that compliment the site but not the focus of the site.

This might seem reasonable, except that Etsy sees any alteration on an item as a handmade product.  If you add a button to a thrift store jacket, you can list it as handmade.  Plus, most people don't tag their things correctly, break all the rules of what is allowed and what isn't so that those of us who do follow the rules really end up at a disadvantage.  It's frustrating. 

Still, I appreciate being included in this selection and hope that it does send people on over to my store.  Sales have been very slow so hopefully this will help a bit.  The piece shown is a vintage suzani.  Gorgeous hand stitching in the well recognized Uzbeki style in bright colors against a burgundy background.  These embroideries are used on the walls and are made, even today, in towns all over Uzbekistan.  My piece is probably from the 1970's.

Visit Etsy Finds to see the other wonderful work included today, too!

And, thanks, Morna, for the heads up!

Rayela Art makes it on Etsy Finds!

Tithing for Textiles

Ralli Quilt from Pakistan

I recently had an Etsy customer buy three of my ralli quilts. She bought two the first time and then several weeks later, a third one. Most of what I carry in my shops are low end items, under $30. Textile stamps have the biggest following, but the remnants, beads, fabric and molas also get their share of attention. The higher end, vintage textiles (ralli quilts, suzani embroideries and kilims), sit for a longer period in my shops, but eventually, the right person finds them and they also sell. This customer mentioned that she was excited to spend money from her textile fund.

Textile fund? Interesting.... She set aside money every month until she had enough to buy something that really was special to her. That got me to thinking.... Most of the people that I know have lost a lot of money during these hard economic times. This lost money means that "disposable" income that could be used for fun, for impulse purchases, is gone. The belt tightens up and priorities (mortgages, utilities, food, etc.) take precedence over unnecessary purchases. Most would argue that buying a textile or art falls into that "unnecessary" category. Yet, even in hard times, most of us spend money on non-art things that we also don't need: a coffee, an electronic toy, a hamburger, and so on. $10 here, $15 there. I would argue that there is a place, a needed one, for beautiful, handmade things in our lives. So, what if we actually made that a priority and set up a fund for beauty?

Suzani Embroidery from Uzbekistan

Having limited income forces most of us to think more carefully about our purchases. I do think that this is a behavior that we, as a society, desperately need if we are to change how we impact this earth. We buy and sell so much junk, so much stuff that just ends up in a corner, eventually gets donated or thrown out. Stuff that will never biodegrade. Stuff that breaks the first time you use it. Stuff that becomes obsolete in two years. Stuff, stuff, stuff. When we don't have much money, we still have this urge to spend and this makes us go for what is cheap.

Banana Leaf with Butterflies, Mola from Panama

My mother is the incarnation of the practical woman who understands value as that what is lasting. She was a farm girl from Minnesota of Icelandic stock. When I was six months old, she and my Dad went to Brazil as missionaries and we spent the next 18 years there. Shopping was always a search for value. Not for what was cheap, but for what would last. We had one of those old wringer washing machines that would destroy anything that was poorly sewn. They boiled the clothes, so if dye was not set, it would leak on everything else. She would rather have one good sweater that would last twenty years, then 10 sweaters that would fall apart in a year. I learned that lesson from her and look at everything in terms of how it is built or constructed.

My mother reading me a story in 1962.

So, maybe setting up a separate bank account for beauty is one way to go. My customer also made me think of the concept of tithing. This is a practice many churches have of giving 10% of one's income back to the church in order to fund church projects and to help the poor. Jews, Muslims, and other religions have similar concepts. In the old days, this concept went beyond money and included one's labor: crops or products. At different points in European history, tithing was translated into taxation, overseen by the Church with political backing. Forced tithing or taxation resulted in imprisonment, land grabbing and finally, revolts. Tithing went back to a voluntary concept.

Handwoven kilim from Afghanistan

In thinking about this, I am attracted by the idea of not only setting up a beauty fund, but of also allocating a percentage of one's productivity toward charity. Those of us who are artists do have an asset that can be given back to society. We can volunteer our knowledge to a community program (after-school programs, nursing homes, hospitals, homeless shelters, etc) through teaching a free workshop or we can donate items that we make or our computer skills to fund-raising events or to the less fortunate around us.

Each of us has to find our place in this world and to choose how we spend our buying power and our productive energy. The handmade movement does have a huge impact on what is being made (is it junk?) and where these things end up. We can save for beauty, tithe for it, work for it, and slowly change the perceptions of what we need and want. My thanks to a wonderful customer who made me do a bit of thinking!

Tithing for Textiles

Prayer Rugs, Kilims & Suzanis, A Few of My Favorite Things by Catherine Salter Bayar

When I was a very young girl, my mom took my brother and me to the movie theater to see “The Sound of Music”. We loved it so much that we left the theater, drove over to pick my dad up from work, and went right back to see it a second time. The best part of the story was Julie Andrews cheering up unhappy children by singing, “Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…” I learned then that remembering the little things I most loved was a great way to lift my spirits out of the doldrums. Perhaps that’s why I collect vintage textiles – they remind me of the best things in life.

Turkish Prayer Rug

Like this small prayer rug, probably woven by a girl not a lot older than I was when I saw that movie. Turkish village girls would start learning to weave practically as soon as they could walk and talk, so that by the time they were old enough to marry, their dowries would be complete.

Prayer Rug Tree of Life Medallion

Prayer rugs were not only good training for larger carpets; they were something every person in the home would need for their prayers five times a day. This central medallion is full of Tree of Life symbolism, to remind those who saw it to appreciate their connectedness to all those relatives in the village who nurtured their roots in life.


Hearts, floral vines and zigzags of fresh water were other reminders, along with the waxing and waning moons over the mountains as a sign of how fast time flies.

Long Kurdish Kilim Runner

Near Mount Ararat in Eastern Anatolia, Kurdish tribes would weave pairs of animals into their colorful wool kilims to recall the story of how Noah was commanded by God to collect two of every animal on the earth and take them along in the Ark.

Animals Depicted in the Kilim,
Important in the Weaver's Life

Chickens and ducks must have been an important part of this weaver’s daily life, though all sorts of farm animals are depicted here.

Woven Flowers, Representing Beauty and Abundance

And of course, flowers were almost always woven in, as a sign of appreciation for abundance and beauty. But my favorites are suzanis, especially this one:

40 Yr Old Suzani

Embroidered in Central Asia more than 40 years ago, it is a veritable Garden of Eden. Comprised entirely of flowers, leaves and tendrils in hot pinks, oranges and pungent greens, just looking at it makes me smile.


The embroiderer who drew the pattern was ambitious in the amount of detail she added. She and the friends who must have helped her did not complete stitching all the curling bits and pieces, so ink marks are still evident.

Ink marks still evident on this Suzani from the 1960's.

What fiber artist can’t relate to starting such a large project and never getting it all done?

I marvel that the backs of suzanis look nearly as good as the fronts:

The backs of Suzani embroideries are almost as solid as the fronts.

The edges are bound in a contrasting color cotton and machine stitched, but in controlled wavy patterns that would not be so easy to do.


The embroiderers did manage to stitch outlines around the border leaves. My favorite details are the chain stitched bands that enclose the border, so precisely executed they look knitted.

Scorch marks from an iron add history and character to this suzani.

Alas, someone once took a too-hot iron to the heavy sateen that I think is silk, though it may well be cotton…I’ve never snipped a piece to burn and find out. Much of the pale background is covered with scorch marks, and there are occasional stains that show that I’m not the first woman to love this suzani. Though disparaged in today’s world in which everything and everyone must be without flaw, to me, this suzani’s imperfections give it an extra layer of character on top of the beautiful embroidery. Like my favorite things in life, I’ll take the bitter with the sweet.

These three treasures can be found in my Etsy shop, along with lots of other vintage fiber art finds. Click on their names to visit the listing:

Prayer Rug

Ararat Kilim Runner

Suzani

Catherine Salter Bayar lives with her husband Abit in Selcuk, near Ephesus, Turkey, where they own a vintage textile shop and a water pipe & wine bar. A regular contributor of this blog, Catherine is also a member of our Fiber Focus group. She is currently working on a book on Turkish textiles. Visit Catherine and Abit at www.bazaarbayar.com or www.bazaarbayar.etsy.com.




Visit us: Ataturk Mahallesi, Siegburg Caddesi, 3 Selcuk 35920 Izmir Turkey
Phone: 90.232.892.6508

Prayer Rugs, Kilims & Suzanis, A Few of My Favorite Things by Catherine Salter Bayar

The Story of Stuff

I make my livelihood by selling stuff that nobody really needs. I sell handmade textiles, textile stamps, rugs, quilts, remnants, and other beautiful things made all over the world.

A Suzani from Uzbekistan. Who really needs it?

I've had many guest artists come on Fiber Focus and speak about their work. They make baskets, felted animals, bags, pillows, vessels, quilts, hats, and all kinds of things that nobody really "needs". This is the greatest contradiction of what we do in a world that is choking with junk, being stripped of it's natural resources, and waging wars over oil.

That Suzani went from the maker to the user to the wholesaler who shipped it to the United States, I bought it and when it sells, I'll ship it somewhere else. 30% of my sales go to European or Australian customers. I've often thought how ironic it is is that here I am going bla-bla-bla about the condition of the world, when what I do is tied intrinsically to the very same machine that is creating the problem. I ship out products daily to customers around the world. I am contributing to pollution by the packaging I use and by using the transportation systems that guzzle up the most oil: airplanes. What to do? What to do?

Updated link to The Story of Stuff

The Story of Stuff is an illustrated movie about the production process of all the stuff we buy on a daily basis. It talks about the natural resources that are being used, manufacturing processes, and disposal of waste. If you have the time, do watch it. Here is their description of the movie:

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns, with a special focus on the United States. All the stuff in our lives, beginning from the extraction of the resources to make it, through its production, sale, use and disposal, affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues and calls for all of us to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something. It'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Written by Leonard, the film was produced by Free Range Studios the makers of other socially-minded, web-based films such as “The Meatrix” and “Grocery Store Wars.” Funding for the project came from The Sustainability Funders and Tides Foundation.

I believe that we need to change the way we live drastically. We must sever our addiction to stuff. So, how do I reconcile my own footprint within this framework? Sigh... It's not easy.

Rose Plane by Loran Scruggs

There are several mantras that power my love for this business:

• I believe that we do NEED beautiful stuff around us. Almost all indigenous cultures have moved functional objects beyond their basic use to include decorative content. A basket might be used to carry potatos, but why not add some pattern, some zig-zags, some motifs that reflect our belief in the after life? We may need a blanket to cover us at night, but why not decorate it with a story about Grandpa and his trip to the Chicago World Fair? There seems to be a drive within us to mark our space, to personalize it and make it uniquely ours. Corporate marketing efforts spend millions on capitalizing on this drive and work on our psyche to constantly improve this need with new curtains, new wall colors, new pillows, new dinnerware sets, new, new, new...

Circuit Board Clip Boards by Debby Arem Designs


• I believe that supporting handmade products helps heal society. For the maker, producing hand made objects allows them to maintain social structures that are more healthy than working a "normal" job. Many of the cottage industries in developing countries are in remote areas, far from job opportunities that are often dehumanizing. Men can remain in the village, women can raise their children within their community, traditional lifestyles are maintained, and for the artists and crafters in industrialized countries, we have ownership over our time. I'm also living in an area where there are not many job opportunities. I worked at Home Depot for awhile and a fabric store, both at $7 an hour. What can you buy with $35 minus their witholdings after five hours of labor? Selling online allows me to live a simpler lifestyle, away from the city, and I have control over my time. All of the artists and craft organizations I have linked on this blog are trying to achieve their dreams through creating hand made products, the stuff nobody really needs.

Harley Motorcycle by Art Exchange

• I believe that the production process of handmade items are healthier for the world. Many of us are recycling or repurposing stuff that would end up in landfills. Those working with natural fibers push the demand for green products that have a lighter footprint on the earth. Crafters in developing countries and in industrialized ones tend to use materials that are abundant to the region, from straw to wool to fabric to trash. My focus on this blog is fiber, but I also love other craft forms. I worked with clay for three years and still miss it. I especially love things that are made out of trash. There are many Etsy artists who are making wonderful things our of old lp records, computer mother boards, old forks and knives, stuff nobody nobody needs.

Beatle's Purse by Retro Grandma

• I believe that the buyers who support us in buying the stuff that nobody needs also enter the healing process. They may not know how to sew, to crochet, to make a pot, but by surrounding themselves with these objects, they become linked to all these good things that crafters and artists are about. We cannot survive as crafters and artists without buyer support. Even in a barter system, you need to have someone who is willing to trade something you want for something they want. This exchange of money for goods or goods for services has to have a willing audience who wants to participate in the process. I am currently receiving treatment from a doctor who is also trained in Chinese medicine. Dr. Christi Bonds is a textile addict. She doesn't need anything I have, but I need her skills. I could never afford her but she wants the stuff I have that nobody needs.


• I believe that we as crafters and artists have the responsibility to move away from making junk towards producing objects that have a long life. Buyers and sellers make choices daily in what they buy and sell. Do we buy and sell quantities of cheap clothes that will fall apart in a year or do we choose quality over quantity? My mother is of Icelandic descent and they would receive an Icelandic sweater for High School graduation that would last a lifetime. An Icelandic sweater can cost hundreds of dollars.

Do all of these beliefs help ease the nagging feeling of unease and guilt of contributing towards pollution and waste? Yes, they do. I don't see an option at this point. I love what I do! I love all the connections this stuff nobody needs makes between peoples of different cultures, faiths, creeds, income levels, and sexes. I think that along with decreasing waste and living a more simple life, we need to learn more about each other. We need to understand other cultures and to communicate with people who are different from ourselves. More than the aesthetic and functional qualities of the things we make and own are the indelible ties that we create with each other through these objects. We are much less likely to bomb those who become friends than the unknown dot on the map. And, this, this connection with the other is something we desperately need!

The Story of Stuff

A Shoe Fetish, Anyone?

Why is it that shoes capture our attention so completely? Hats, gloves, and other accessories also have their fan clubs, but shoes seem to beat the others in terms of a collective and historical obsession. Sure, they serve function in how we connect with earth: protecting from the elements, providing warmth, keeping our selves clean and enabling or preventing mobility. But, I think there is also something about the form itself that offers the maker and the wearer a challenging canvas to go beyond function into adornment. Shoes make or break an outfit. They define social status. They change how a person stands, walks or sits. Look at the shoes and a judgment is formed about the person. Adornment speaks of historical, cultural and personal statements of society.

Sioux quilled and beaded moccasins, circa 1900. (Cowan's Auctions Inc.)

My all-time favorite museum, The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, has a huge exhibit along one wall with hundreds of shoe samples from around the world, old and new. Their web description states:

"People everywhere face the common concern of how to cover and protect their feet. As you look around, you’ll notice that people have responded to this concern in countless (and often amazing) ways.

The kind of shoes a person might use depends on a combination of factors: what the environment is like, what kind of shoes his or her group traditionally wears, and what the shoemaker can create.

Imagine shedding your own shoes and standing in one of these pairs instead. Which ones would you choose? And what would it be like to look at life from that different point of view --even for just a moment?"

I carry mukluks from Afghanistan, one of my best sellers in my eBay store. I have several pairs and love wearing them during the cold, winter months.


Made by Afghan refugees out of recycled sweaters, the mukluks are more of a sock than a shoe or boot, but they come from a boot tradition, much like the felted boots of Tibet:

Tradtional Tibetan Felt Boots

These are examples of function needed for a cold climate offering comfort and protection. But, shoes have also been a source of pain and even death. Foot binding in China lasted over 1,000 years. Women bound their feet tightly, curling the toes under the feet and raising the arch of the foot. The smaller foot, the better. Lotus shoes, now highly collectible, encased these crippled foot remains. This pair is available on eBay for $345:

Chinese Lotus Shoes

I actually had a customer in my Chicago store who came looking for a pair of lotus shoes for her 90 year old mother who had bound feet. Shirley Two Feathers has an interesting article on her blog about foot binding. She doesn't know where she got this photo:

We may think of these customs as barbaric, but stiletto heels also cause severe tendon and back damage. The High Heel Shoe Museum has a bunch of sexy photos of women in stiletto shoes.

Most of the gorgeous, young models are sitting, kneeling, or laying down. Hmmm.... Wonder why? Could it be that they are NOT comfortable?!! One of my best friends when I was growing up in Brazil was Japanese. She and her sisters all tried to compensate for their height wearing these stilettos. Even back then, when we were young and flexible, they could not wear tennis shoes. They could run in those spikes, but not without.

Contemporary artists and designers continue to draw on traditional fabrics and needle work, as well as form, for inspiration for cool-looking shoes. Feltoman from Turkey sells beautiful suzani on felt boots on eBay. (There are flat soles available, too!)

Suzani boots, $115, Feltoman

The Natural Store uses vintage kimono fabric in their smart-looking pumps, $320 pounds.

Kimono covered shoes from The Natural Store, a fair trade outlet.

Diverso Studio on Etsy has a nice selection of mola shoes for $45.

Mola shoes from Diverso Studio on Etsy.

Shoe images are everywhere in art. They are painted, cast, quilted, silk screened, and framed. Travelers photograph them. Radical Sabbatical captured this happy photo in Morocco:

Moroccan slippers by Radical Sabbatical

Have a shoe fetish, anyone? Whether you do or not, walk gently on this good earth!

A Shoe Fetish, Anyone?

Book Review: Traditional Textiles of Central Asia by Janet Harvey

As a companion to yesterday's article on Afghan Tribal Arts, I thought this book review would be a good complement. Traditional Textiles of Central Asia is my favorite book on these textiles and has a great deal of information on the history and use of items both Abdul and I carry.


My book actually has a different cover, a weaving with tassels and beads. Published in 1996 by Thames and Hudson, it has 262 gorgeous illustrations, 212 of them in color and 2 maps. There are plenty of people photos, showing the textiles in their cultural context, which I always enjoy, and the rest are excellent product photos with descriptions of their use.

The book is divided into four sections:

1. History and Motifs (nomads and settled peoples, trade routes, jenghis khan, foreign influences, etc,)
2. Materials and Dye (wool, silk and sericulture, cotton, dye sources and dyeing)
3. Felts, Weaving and Dress (nomad felts, woven fabrics, nomad and village weavings, looms, flat weaves, knotted pile, covers, hangings, ikat, etc)
4. Applied Decoration (embroidery, nomad, village and urban traditions, block printing and fabric painting

These topics cover a vast amount of information, any of which have books written specifically addressing particular traditions or crafts. Harvey's book serves as an introduction to the region and its traditions, an overview which brings it all together. Specialists can then zoom in on their particular interests.

Harvey describes her journey in the preface:

"I travelled widely, using local transport, along the bumpy tracks which are the ancient 'ways' of nomadic tribes. Occasionally, a family would be on the move, the animals laden with woven bags and the women magnificent in their dresses. In nomad encampments the activity of producing the essential fabrics and furnishings was apparent at once in the warp pegged out on the ground, and piles of shorn fleece waiting to be made into felt or spun. ...

Although the pace of social change has accelerated in the past decades, warps are still being pegged out on the desert ground, and women continue to gain status with their exquisite embroidery. I have no doubt that when I next return I shall again find a man from Hazarajat standing on a street corner selling from his barrow piled high with gloves, socks, pullovers and hats knitted by the people of his village." (page 6)


Harvey's book covers textile traditions of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizistan, Tajikistan, Kohistan, and Eastern Turkestan, areas known traditionally as the silk road of Asia. Much of this terrain is austere with either mountains or desert environments demanding hardiness from its inhabitants. War and social turmoil have also created chaos in the past decades leading to a further dwindling of resources. Deforestation under the Russian occupation in the 1970's, as an example, has made wood a precious commodity. Wool and silk continue to provide warmth and functional materials for clothing, blankets, bags, carpets, and wall hangings.

Following are some examples of items that I carry that with text that Janet Harvey uses to describe similar work in her book:

Textiles are woven primarily for utilitarian functions, but also important in the nomad culture is tribal identity, manifest particularly in the decorative appearance of the textiles. Despite the common factors of a simple loom-type, wool yarn and dyes, the weavings of the Turkmen tribes, the Uzbek, Kifghiz, Khazakh, Karakalpak, Balouch and other tent-dwellers of Central Asia, are astonishingly diverse in their structures, colourings and decorative patterns, even when fulfilling similar functions. (page 72)


Lacking vegetable fibres to make baskets and wood for furniture, nomads turn to woven bags (known generally as kep throughout Central Asia) to store and transport their possessions. The wealth and status of a family is judged by the number and quality of the bags that hang from the lattice of the tent to store clothing, bedding, domestic items and hunting equipment, or are slung from sides of camels, horses and donkeys when the tribe moves camp. The gol and decorative patterns woven on the bag-face are the badges of tribal identity. (page 89)



The skill of weaving is not only a respected but also valuable asset among the Central Asian tribes. As well as being a necessity of nomadic existence, the woven rugs are an insurance against hard times. During periods of drought or other hardship the men of the family will clear the home of surplus rugs and weavings and sell them in the bazaar. (page 71)
Sun-disc motif, rooted in ancient beliefs, decorate a bolim posh, the canopy held over the bride and groom during the wedding ceremony. (The one pictured is a Suzani from the 1970's or 1980's. Harvey's photo is much older.)


Embroidery is considered a protective element in its own right. Worked round garment-openings like sleeves and pockets, it guards the wearer from harmful forces. ... Hooked disc motifs to guard the hem and side-slits of a Turkmen robe, worked in lacing stitch (kesdi) and chain stitch. (pages 37, 38)


Religious and social edicts frobidding the wearing of pure silk resulted in the use of silk warps with cotton weft. Turkmenistan women's gowns made in rich red adras (plain-weave) silk-and-cotton. (page 111)


Gul-i-peron, 'dress flowers', small embroidered felt discs designed to be stitched to clothing, bags, and animal trappings. Emblems of good fortune such as beads, cowrie-shells and metal discs are all incorporated, and metal thread is often used to work the pattern. The discs are widely used and have a long history. Examples have been found in burials dated before 400 BC. (page 40) (Abdul has several of these listed in his Etsy store.)

Rug woven in slit-tapestry or kelim technique, a method producing clearly defined geometric shapes. Each region has distinctive patterns and colours. This example is from the Maimana area in northern Afghanistan. (page 79)


Turkman bag for storing clothes, with knotted-pile face displaying the tribal gol. (page 82)

This is just a small sampling of the fascinating textile traditions Harvey covers in her book. She has extensive information on felting and ikat, neither of which I have samples at the moment. This book is a must have for anyone interested in this region, its culture and the weaving, dyeing, embroidery, and other techniques used in Central Asia.

Book Review: Traditional Textiles of Central Asia by Janet Harvey