Doorsixteen is supporting and hosting a page for independent artists, designers and crafters for this holiday season shopping (Its her 6th year doing this). All the links to the independent shops are in the comments sections. The image links directly to the post. The image is available for anyone to use and share. I suggest going over there and browsing through the unique and thoughtful offers. Oh yea, discounts listed as well!
I came across D16's post a few days ago, and clicked on several of the "vendors", fell in love with a wooden triangle ring from (of)matter and treated myself. I'm quick to make such decisions! Poking around her ETSY shop revealed some really sweet and shapely jewellery so I picked out some black triangle earrings and gold circle earrings, as well as the wooden ring. Gifts for myself! They arrived yesterday (very quick processing&shipping) and were packaged lovingly in little boxes and bags. They were met for my stocking but I was too curious and dug in and donned them. My little 2 year old thought it was very cool that I had triangles on my ears.
Look to the right of my posts and you will see an ETSY column which displays and links to unique ETSY shops; showing my most current & favourite items for gift ideas - lots of kids stuff, but some decorations & jewellery as well. See the wooden ring. Oh, so cool. The brass bar ring is also really neat.
And a bit of humour, Swissmiss recently posted about "Lid Sid", HA! Just what my new kitchen needs. Little people dangling over my pots, propping open the lid, releasing steam. Everyone needs that.
And dont forget LOCAL: After clicking on these links and any other gift guide links ... don't forget to turn OFF the computer, get off the chair, get OUTside and find your own local craft venue. Enjoy the hustle and bustle and ambiance of shopping your own local crafts sales. We are hitting our Plowshare Craft Fair this weekend.
Heading down (or up?) the Bosphorus Strait I like to stroll through the arts and crafts market in Ortaköy, Istanbul.
We find many beautiful items such as scarves, hammered gold rings, spray painted gold mirror frames, little leather pouches, peacock jewelled hair clip ...ah it goes on.
We returned to the market in search of wee, wee VW cars to add to our
collection. Sadly there were none to be found. Luckily we were not
disappointed by all the other goodies.
We discovered Nahil. The little knitted booties drew my attention.
I have swooned over these kind of knitted booties @ ETSY shops ever
since I spotted them when pregnant with L. But I was neither gifted a
pair ;), nor bought myself a pair. Having them live, in front of me, I
couldn't resist. My daughter has outgrown baby booties, but I do know
two people expecting...so I picked up a couple pairs.
The woman also gave me a pretty bookmark with details of the store, Nahil; an enterprise of the Foundation for the Support of Women's work (FSWW). Women produce the goods and the income is used to support Women and Children Center's
The website has many lovely items for sale, from soaps and sponges to knitted boots to tree ornaments and adorable dolls. The dolls are my favourite. I am pining for a couple.
Over-dyed carpets were recently added to Anthropologie's rug collection and have long been around at ABC Carpet. As a huge investment. I had to go in and find out Turkey's take on this trend. Once we relocated the store on our second trip to the Grand Bazaar, Recip from Güney Carpet recognized us and was happy talk carpets. (post edit: I have now read up more on over dyed carpets and discovered that Istanbul was one of the first to do this, reclaiming stained carpets)
He had informed us that he sends many over-dyed carpets to Scandinavia countries right now. Since I am in love with Scandinavian design, this bit of information thrilled me.
Recip explained the process as:
1) shave the carpet.
2) sun dye the carpet.
3) apply and over dye the carpet.
They use vintage / old carpets for the process. The dye is not as dark as I saw on carpets @ Anthropologie, but that could merely be the lighting / photo. I am not sure. And although this is a beautiful carpet and I like that I can see the original design through the dye, I might like the colour to be even darker.
I also loved the colours and thin stripes of this carpet:
And the design and colours of this carpet:
But I was drawn mostly to the patch carpets, over-dyed pieces patched together. Gray, dark purple and yellow have been my colour motif for a year+. I especially like the pink block with black design in this carpet pictured below. This carpet had it all.
A very old, unique patch carpet. This one was special for its smaller antique pieces and different piled patches.
Over-dyed gray, turquoise, yellow and pink.
Over-dyed large blue gray patch carpet. Very interesting!
The shop, Güney Carpet, beautiful woven art. Recip has three locations in the Grand Bazaar. The one shown below, another one that we had walked by and declined a sales persons' offer to look at their carpets. Remember, I wasn't there to buy? I just wanted to learn about the over-dyed carpets. So we had to find this one particular store. Carpet sales people LOVE to show off their inventory, it is after all, woven art. I do not like to bother people, but felt obliged to let him unroll a couple ... Can you see the layers of carpets on the floor ... hand selected for us to admire, de-shelved and spread out for our viewing.
And the third larger store, with even more inventory. At first Recip's assistant hauled a couple carpets from here to us, but then they decided it was better for us to go there. Recip told us that he had been in San Diego for a carpet convention. He was then contracted to mend a few carpets, which is his forte. He told us he could not believe that people let their dogs sit on the carpets...he had lots of mending to do. I didn't tell him I had a dog and three cats. I didn't even want to remind myself of that.
While we fly home today, I will leave you this post, a stroll down Istiklal Caddes, Taksim (on 7/4/11, the beginning of our trip) and some more vendors from Assos village market.
City central - people watching, restaurants, bars, shops. And an old fashioned tram.
Browsing postcards:
Embroidered bags. We bought one for our petsitter:
Instrument row. If you need a flute or string instrument, come to this street in Beyoğlu:
Belly dancing pants, for little ones:
Spot the owl. They are popular here too!
Market street is Assos:
Now it is time to return home...until next time, farewell.
And whats a trip to Istanbul without a walk through the Grand Bazaar.
There are two kinds of shopping in Istanbul. One can go to MANY MANY different fashionable, modern shopping malls such as Akmerkez in Ulus, Kanyon in Levent, City in Nişantaşı... it goes on and on. Every time we come to Istanbul, there is a new mall. It amazes me, the constant YAPI YAPI (construction construction). There is even a bank named YapiKredi. Construction Credit. Nothing like supporting new construction, unlike our mall back home that started an expansion and then it was halted due to financing. A few years ago. One nice big chunk of concrete stuck onto the existing mall. Ah, but I digress...
And then there is the infamous covered market ... Kapalı Çarşı ... The Grand Bazaar where one can soak in the trades of beautiful carpets, tapestries, kilim rugs and bags, leather, jewelery, ceramics, hanging lanterns. The lanterns are so beautiful... I would love one but can never make up my mind on which one I want. In the past I was all over the ceramics and I have a lovely collection of bowls and little cups and vases. This year, I seem to be led to hammam towels, soaps and tapestries and, well, carpets. I love my carpets.
Our first stroll (7/1) through the covered market consisted of the tram ride up the hill, a walk down some streets and into the bazaar. We wound our way up and down some aisles until we could no longer follow what seemed to be a logical way of walking every aisle. We then exited and made our way down a narrow, cobblestone street of stores selling shoes, formal children's wear and pajamas. Kitchen utensils... everyday kind of stuff. We ended up at the spice market and it was time to leave as two little people had had enough were ready for some ice cream. I bought a flute, some wooden spoons and a tiny frying pan. An embroidery hand bag for the house-sitter and some soaps and a couple hammam towels.
We returned a second time (7/9). My intention was to soak up some inspiration, pick up a flute for my sons friend, a couple more hammam towels and get the business card of the carpet seller we spoke to during our first stroll.
We met Recep Ergin during our first stroll as he had an over-dyed carpet displayed in the storefront window. I had first spotted over-dyed carpets on Anthropologie's website a few months ago. They were gorgeous and expensive. So I HAD to check out these carpets. We entered the tiny shop and spoke with Recep. He informed us that he sends lots of the over-dyed carpets to Scandinavia countries. You see, I had no intention of buying a carpet or even looking at carpets. I was just curious about this over-dyed window display. We left and I was all giggly about the information I had learned. I made a mental note to return with my camera, well fed/patient children and get his business card.
The Bazaar is a seemingly windy and never ending, hustle and bustle place filled with many of the same kind of shops, over and over again making it a bit difficult to find that ONE specific store.
We passed many beautiful items such as this embroidery bedspread / tapestry.
Some lovely pillow cases. I almost.almost bought one of these cases, but decided to wait until I decide on a sofa.
And more tapestries.
While trying to find this persons shop we had to decline many offers to look at other carpets. We started asking shop owners about this one specific shop and eventually were guided there by another carpet seller.
And finally his shop, Güney Carpet. Ah, beautiful woven art.
The shops are very small spaces, maybe 8x8, yet the space is used SO well. Carpets folded and piled up to the ceiling. After a small discussion about ones preferences, many rugs will have been taken down, unfolded and spread on the floor for you to admire. And then slowly, carpets are eliminated, folded back up and put aside. By the time one is done, 10 carpets will be laid on the ground and you will be sipping apple tea and negotiating.
But I was not there to buy. We talked with the shop owner and got his business card. We looked at a couple of carpets and then left. Just as I intended, but as we reached one of the Bazaars exits, I hesitated...
Handmade by different vendors. 5 lira's a piece. That is approx. 3 dollars.
My favourite is the green one with purple flowers. It must be made of old sari material, it is so lightweight. The green and pink one stirs up fond memories of the 70's and the preppy girls I knew. And I liked the ladynthat was selling it. The white one, now I think it is a shirt for an older girl. I like the purple embroidery.
And I am smitten with this shade of yellow and will have to go back tomorrow to get another dress.
******************* And we went back and got the yellow dress. They didn't have the size I wanted, a larger one for next year. When we walked by the next day the "husband" told us that his wife made a new one last night, just for us. I do not know how she made it so fast, embroidery and all.
