I had been looking forward to my overland journey from Georgia to Turkey, but awaking with a bad stomach on the day of travel meant it wasn’t the most pleasant experience! After 3 bus journey’s including a 13 hour journey through the night with windy roads I was left feeling very sick, but the sun rise over semi-arid land as we were approaching Ankara was beautiful. The journey to Konya was over almost dead flat steppe stretching as far as the eye could see with roads as straight as I could possibly wish for, and 26 hours after crossing the border I eventually arrived in Konya.

My welcome from Mehmet, Rahbia and their son Celalettin was as good as my journey had been bad and I immediately felt at home and relaxed with friends. I have now been here a month and every day is better than the last with so much to learn and share and experience. I am already making plans to come back in the future and perhaps learn to make these hard wearing, outside ‘yurt’ felts.

“One of Turkey’s oldest continuously inhabited cities was known as ‘Ikonium’ in Roman times. The capital of the Seljuk Turks from the 12^th to the 13^th centuries, it ranks as one of the great cultural centres of Turkey. During that period of cultural, political and religious growth, the mystic Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi founded a Sufi Order known in the west as the Whirling Dervishes. Every year, in the first half of December, this still active religious order holds a ceremony commemorating the Whirling Dervishes (Semazen). The controlled, trance-like turning or Sema of the white robed men creates a fascinating performance for the viewer.”

Mehmet’s grandfather was a felt maker, specialising in the tall, stiff hats worn by the Semazen (Dervishes). This is a special skill and requires strong muscles and a lot of work to finish it properly. In the house I spied a miniature hat that gave me an idea! I was lucky to have over 2 weeks before the school project would start and was inspired by the beautiful work around me in the new shop/gallery opened by Mehmet and his family. I was also interested in the Semazen and stretched my creativity into making my first human figure (shown above) that now stands amongst beautiful kilims, carpets and camel sacks in the gallery window.

Later when my parents were here at the same time as the ‘Mevlana’ festival we were able to see the performance of Sema which was an experience that moved us all. It felt like a special privilege to be watching an ancient ceremony of such spiritual feeling.

Contemporary science definitely confirms that the fundamental condition of our existence is to revolve. There is no object, no being which does not revolve and the shared similarity among beings is the revolution of the electrons and protons in the atoms, which constitute the structure of the smallest particle to the stars far in the sky.

Turkey is the first Islamic country I have really experienced and to arrive at the end of Ramazan was particularly special. Ramazan is a holy month for all Islamic peoples. It is a time when people are fasting (taking no food, water or tobacco) throughout daylight hours. The intention is to fast for Allah (God), to learn patience and self discipline and have some idea of what it is means to be less fortunate and experience hunger. At the same time people give 4% of their yearly income to the poor, if they have enough to give. There is a sense of togetherness as all people have a shared intention in that month and often celebrate breaking the fast in the evening together, appreciating their food and drink more than usual!

At the end of Ramazan is the celebration of Bayram, also known as the ‘Sweet’ festival. Over three days family members and friends make a point of visiting each other and always sweets are offered, usually including the delicious ‘Lokum’ or Turkish Delight!

Family is also very important in Turkey and once again it was special for me to have a visit from my parents for a week. It had been 9 months since we had seen each other and was good to catch up on news, give and receive hugs and also get out of the city to see a bit of the local countryside. We visited Meke Crater Lake close to Karapinar and watched eagles landing on the flat scrub land by the road. At the lake itself there were many different birds enjoying the water, Ruddy Shelduck and several Waders and even a dead flamingo, a bird I had only ever seen in captivity!

Around the crater lake were crags of the soft stone that is easily carved by the extremes of weather temperatures, strong, hot sun in the summer and freezing snow in the winter.

Felt making has a long history in Turkey and although there are not many makers left, Mehmet Girgic is keeping the tradition alive and enhancing its reputation with his high standards of quality. I never seen felt made so strong that when you knock on it the sound is like wood it is so hard and strong. I feel as if my previous knowledge of felt techniques have been revolutionised by watching and learning from both Mehmet and Rahbia.

Having been surrounded by beautiful kilims I took these designs as inspiration for the first teachings with the girls, to learn how the pre felt images fix to the rest of the wool. As they had such little time I decided to go straight into the making of a bag, which was difficult for first time felters but something they all enjoyed.

The symbols all have meanings and some were put onto the panel.

Here the design shows through the plastic template from the other side, the bag is being made inside out and she will continue with the design on this side and then fold in the background colours around the plastic template.

Once the felt was getting stronger, the plastic is taken out and the hard work of felting really begins. After being shown Mehmet’s techniques that produce such strong felt I am now a convert and have changed my finishing techniques.

Showing off the finished work!

We spent 2 days preparing the pictures and deciding what was important to be included in the panel and giving thought to the background colours.

Rahbia reminded me of the uses of net curtain over the wool and I re-used this technique I’d almost forgotten about. I also like to have my hands directly on the wool but for beginners it is very useful to use the net. However, the girls were very good and careful with their work so no holes were made!

The following day they were able to carefully cut out the drawings and have fun making the images from different pieces of pre-felt and wool.

When all the felt images were laid out on the paper it was easier to decide on the background colours that would help to show the images at their best, and prevent the colours blending into each other.

The next day was the difficult day of laying out the design in as similar way as possible to how we could see it on the paper. It is always more difficult when working upside down!

Starting with the borders always makes sense as then we know how much space to fit the main part of the design into.

Then the lines of the background were laid out for mountains, sea and Cappadocia, to help set a framework for where to place the pre felt pieces.

When the framework is in place and the pre felts laid out then the background colours can be laid on top as the first layer of wool out of 3 layers.

Below the bottom border is being covered and the sky and mountains worked on!

One girl had been working hard on the design of Cappadocia but due to the heavy snow falls she was unable to find transport into town until the afternoon. We decided that we should leave a gap for her to work on when she arrived!

The following day was felting day! We lay a huge net over the wool and gently rubbed over the wool with soap and water until it was all flat onto the cloth.

We rolled the felt up around a 3 metre very heavy pole and began the several hours of rolling that would bind all the wool together. I tried out some of my children’s songs but the one that we all enjoyed most was a Turkish chant that had the perfect rhythm for rolling to!

There were enough girls for us all to take the odd break and be drawn towards the wood stove and the never empty tea pot!!

It did not take very long before we were able to turn the piece over and se what all our hard work had achieved.

The felting day had taken us into Saturday and we decided to spend Sunday making some fun sculptures for them to learn a bit more about felting techniques. Their university course is training them to teach handicrafts to children and teenagers so we looked at some easy things that could be taught to the children they will eventually be teaching!

Firstly to Nurgul Begic who is the handicrafts teacher at the university and who, with enthusiasm organised for her students to come and complete the project.

Secondly of course to the students themselves who worked hard to make a beautiful representation of Turkey and struggled to understand an English-only speaking teacher!!

Finally the BIGGEST thank you goes out to Mehmet and Rahbia and family for;

inviting me here to do the project and contacting Nurgul;

welcoming me and my family into their home so openly;

giving the fantastic wool for the project;

allowing me to take over their workspace;

translating between the students and me to ensure complete understanding;

teaching me so much and being such lovely friends!

I hope one day I can give as much support to others following their dreams as has been given me both here and throughout the whole of this journey.

To contact me :-

To go to the main Felt From the Heart web site :-

To contact Mehmet and Rahbia :-

To visit their web site :-