Shifting Sands Istanbul is finally heating up this week. After a cold winter and a very wet spring, not just our ever-morphing weather is changing.  We’ve had a big shift in perspective: read about it here. A view of the horizon is always good, even if you can’t see what’s coming.  As new Samatyans, we’ve been exploring and setting down roots. We’ve found a new favorite environment to enjoy Turkey’s bountiful food.  We’re surrounded by yet another Istanbul neighborhood steeped in the history of many cultures and civilizations. With the unexpected disruption of our move and the increasing strife unfolding in Syria, we reluctantly postponed our spring handcraft + culture trip. Reports from family and friends in the Southeast note all is fine in the places we plan to visit, so we’ll try again in the fall. Though our Southeast and Aegean plans are pretty much set, we’re open to ideas about our time here in Istanbul – more crafts, less historical sites? We’d also love to hear from you now what dates work best. We’re thinking October, but your opinion matters, so please drop us a line! Our handcrafts are beginning to bloom, so regular posts to come. Knitters: two more patterns published in Jane Austen Knits, Summer 2012! We have a seaside terrace now for at least one workshop day during our craft trip, and a walking tour of ancient Samatya and the old city walls. We’ll be in Diyarbakir next month, so watch our site for updates about our trip there. We’ll also be pinning on Pinterest, a great way to share craft pics, exchange notes about our trip plans, and entice with the visual feast that is Turkey. We hope that life is taking you in new directions too – we’d love to hear about them! photo Rose Deniz

Forward: Winter 2012 It’s the dawn of a New Year. Time to choose new horizons, take new chances, try new ways to get where we want to go.  Sky’s the limit. No better time to get started than right now. We’re spending the winter here in inspirational Istanbul planting seeds for the spring: discovering skills to teach, patterns to create, materials to spin and artisans to visit this coming year. With a little time out soon for travel to reconnect with family and friends, which leads us to ask: anyone in the western part of North America interested in hosting a Turkish evening of craft, conversation, food, and music in February? We’d love to see you! We’re sharpening our focus on the future. By learning the lessons of handcrafts past to guide us creatively forward. A colorful crop of fiber art and the artisans who create them we’ll share with you all year long. May 2012 be the dawn of a daring, generous and invigorating experience for us all!   photo Rose Deniz here

 Colors of Autumn 2011

Vintage Handwoven Rugs

from Anatolia + Moldova

We are pleased to announce our seasonal offering via One Kings Lane,
the premier home decor website for designer goods at amazing prices.

These vintage rugs from the heart of Anatolia and neighboring Moldova speak for themselves.

See what we’ve collected, created in village days gone by and now deserving new homes…perhaps yours or someone you know?

Please note One Kings Lane requires free sign-up to visit our event.Enjoy a handmade season!

photo Rose Deniz

Summer 2011 ~ Stitching Together a Community

Steamy Sultanahmet streets are keeping us inside, wishing the breezes off the Sea of Marmara will keep us cool.  Time to make way for waves of visitors crowding Istanbul Old City wonders. The heat makes summer a slightly lazy season. Just as well we rest up, since our spring was jumping with activity.It was a season of collecting colorful connections, gathering new sources for texturing our business, developing a pattern of sustainable endeavors. We unwound our online activity to make ideas tangible, to meet with folks face to face.We’ve been creating patchworks. Real ones, like those featured for three days this week on One Kings Lane, the insider source for designer décor, in a sale ending today!

Our more virtual patchwork? Getting to know travelers interested in Turkish handcrafts.  Like crochet designer Dora and her friend Leslie, whose persistence in learning a special Turkish cast-on for toe up socks inspired me to master it myself. Or fiber artist and teacher Meredith, introducing me to the fabulous Armaggancollection, just opened as a high-end showcase for Turkish handmade apparel and home décor in an opulent building near the Grand Bazaar.Or bead entrepreneur Andrea, planning a bead and fiber art tour to Turkey next spring. And stranded knitwear designer Celeste,  committed to becoming a traditional Turkish sock-making expert, sparking even more excitement in our upcoming 2012 trip to Abit’s southeastern region, and the recent discovery there of Gobekli Tepe, where religion may have begun.

But our season’s most inspiring stitched-together community has been the crafting ladies at KEDV, the Foundation of the Support of Women’s Work. This grassroots non-profit organization provides work for Turkish women in their own communities, offering training and “capacity building tools”. The fabulous Sule, manager of the KEDV’s Nahil shop in Taksim, is always looking for projects these talented women can take on, so we’ve been designing hamam and knitwear products for them to stitch, with weaving, embroidery and other arts coming soon. Our appreciation to creative entrepreneur alchemist Tara for introducing us!
We’ll have more exciting news in our Fall 2011 letter, when we launch our workshop space along with our custom collection of handcrafted textiles to wear, bathe and decorate with. Our take on modern Turkish style.

Til then, keep cool!

photo Rose Deniz
here

Spring 2011 ~ Jumping the fire

Only three months old, 2011 has already brought dramatic change. Our planet is experiencing a paradigm shift, a cliché maybe, but accurate. Brought about by nations rising up to claim their rights through revolution and calls for reform, by the double-edged sword of Mother Nature’s power, or the more subtle yet ubiquitous transformations that the Internet brings. No denying that few of us will leave this year the same as we entered it.

The Chinese have a saying (or is it a curse?) “May you live in interesting times.” We certainly do. With such enormous events unfolding, we can live in fear, worrying about outcomes we have little means to affect. Or, we can embrace the unknown, learning from the past while building the future. Perhaps after huge upheaval comes a better balance, a greater chance for strong foundations.

In Indo-European cultures, this week marks Newroz, the commemoration of the Spring Equinox. Newroz means “new day”, a phrase that has particular resonance this year. Celebrants jump over bonfires to mark the victory of light over darkness, recalling legends of evil snake kings and brave blacksmithswho outsmart them. Just as we must use our intelligence to overcome trying times.

In this spirit of starting fresh, we’ve moved this week to a new home, with workshop space on the glass-enclosed rooftop above. With ninth-floor 180 views of the Sea of Marmara and the southernmost portion of the Old City, we’re inspired in this aerie, already dubbed “The Eagle’s Nest” in honor of the Bayar tale of Abit’s grandfather being carried away by eagles. (But not to worry – they brought him back unharmed). We’ll work here, opening a small retail space later this season in Sirkeci, a bustling area between the Topkapi Palace and the busy Eminonu harbor.

More stories will take wing this season beyond our rooftop, as we plan a trip to Mardin in the Turkish southeast, the site of that family tale, this May. Check our new website (yes, everything is evolving this spring!) for details.  And look for a special newsletter soon about our workshops to start in April.

May our “interesting times” prove productive, and ultimately peaceful, for us all.

photo Rose Deniz
here