Aloha Everyone,
Túrker Ayaz’s retail shop is located on the same street as our hotel, at the corner of a busy intersection. Last Friday, we spent nearly 45 minutes with him. Here are some of the things we learned about his business.
Sources of handcrafted carpets are scattered around the remote mountain areas of Turkey. The Taurus Mountains region and Capadocia (semi-arid central region of Turkey) were mentioned by Turker. To procure handcrafted carpets, traveling salesmen visit these villages bringing household goods and whatever that remote communities need to barter with village people.
Túrker‘s store is approximately 20 x 20 feet. His carpets are displayed all around the wall. There is also a storage space in the basement. A large bare area in the center is perfect to spread his carpets when showing them to customers.
Turkish carpets are double knotted whereas Persian carpets are single. Túrker graciously stated that they are both beautiful and his store sells both.
Interesting information about prayer carpets. They have direction which you can face towards Mecca. Prayer carpets are asymmetrical in design whereas non prayer carpets are symmetrical.
How can you tell handcrafted carpet from machine made? He simply stated that it is very difficult to differentiate. You have to trust the honesty of the carpet seller. Hopefully, other carpet salesmen would be as honest and forthright as Turker was with us.
Aloha -- Cathi
