Before
marriage, while mastering the textile arts, young girls create the
ceyiz, a dowry collection of beautiful things that will be useful in
their future homes. A girl might knit socks and create a heybe, a
saddlebag, for her husband to carry over his shoulder at the market in a
public display of her domestic skills; she will embroider towels and
weave pillows, carpets and wallhangings. Her new home will be decorated
with memories of her girlhood and family. As she looks at her kilims she
will see herself and her sisters and her neighbors woven together in
affection. While creating the ceyiz in youth, the weaver makes things
that, if necessary, can later be sold to benefit her new family.
Except
at harvest when all hands are busy in the fields, a carpet is rising on
the loom in every house, and when the sun is up, at least two women are
at work. Most weaving is done by girls and women between the ages of 14
and 26 who form together into a special community of work within each
neighborhood of the village. They move fluidly in and out of each
other's homes with no need to knock. They come to visit and when they
visit, they sit and weave. Their fathers and husbands are away in the
fields or sitting in the teahouse. A young girl learns gradually in
childhood by sitting beside her mother, her sister, the other women of
the village; she learns by watching and by absorbing what is going on
around her. The master weaver must begin to learn early and build the
art into her process of growth. In this way, she learns the habits of
the hand that make the work easy rather than self-conscious, and thus
gains the ability for innovation and mastery.
As
young women move through the village, stopping to visit, weaving while
they visit, carpets accumulate the contributions of a wide circle of
friendship. Sitting to weave a spell with her friend, the visitor might
create an intentional inversion in a minor motif or introduce a spot of
surprising color. For the weaver it is a hatra, or a memento of the time
a girlhood friend stopped by and helped for a while. The carpets record
the friendships and events of girlhood, and when the weaver leaves,
taking the carpets of her dowry with her to the village of her husband,
they will remind her of these times.
Before
marriage, while mastering the textile arts, young girls create the
ceyiz, a dowry collection of beautiful things that will be useful in
their future homes. A girl might knit socks and create a heybe, a
saddlebag, for her husband to carry over his shoulder at the market in a
public display of her domestic skills; she will embroider towels and
weave pillows, carpets and wallhangings. Her new home will be decorated
with memories of her girlhood and family. As she looks at her kilims she
will see herself and her sisters and her neighbors woven together in
affection. While creating the ceyiz in youth, the weaver makes things
that, if necessary, can later be sold to benefit her new family.
Except
at harvest when all hands are busy in the fields, a carpet is rising on
the loom in every house, and when the sun is up, at least two women are
at work. Most weaving is done by girls and women between the ages of 14
and 26 who form together into a special community of work within each
neighborhood of the village. They move fluidly in and out of each
other's homes with no need to knock. They come to visit and when they
visit, they sit and weave. Their fathers and husbands are away in the
fields or sitting in the teahouse. A young girl learns gradually in
childhood by sitting beside her mother, her sister, the other women of
the village; she learns by watching and by absorbing what is going on
around her. The master weaver must begin to learn early and build the
art into her process of growth. In this way, she learns the habits of
the hand that make the work easy rather than self-conscious, and thus
gains the ability for innovation and mastery.
As
young women move through the village, stopping to visit, weaving while
they visit, carpets accumulate the contributions of a wide circle of
friendship. Sitting to weave a spell with her friend, the visitor might
create an intentional inversion in a minor motif or introduce a spot of
surprising color. For the weaver it is a hatra, or a memento of the time
a girlhood friend stopped by and helped for a while. The carpets record
the friendships and events of girlhood, and when the weaver leaves,
taking the carpets of her dowry with her to the village of her husband,
they will remind her of these times.