Alrighty. I finally have a few minutes after another crazy week at work. Just when I thought we’d get to move on and start tackling the planning portion of the year end audit, I get a heads up that nope this upcoming week will be spent working on extra filings. Sigh. One day I’ll get to start working on the important stuff.
So the Wordless Wednesday photo I posted in this post is the photo I took of the Turkish rug Mike and I bought on our Honeymoon. We had absolutely no intention of purchasing a rug while in Turkey. We were just going to attend our tour of Ancient Ephesus and the Virgin Mary’s house and then politely sit through the rug presentation at the end of the tour and head back to the ship. We really had no chance.
The bus trip between Ephesus and Kusadasi is 45 minutes. The minute we stepped on the bus our tour guide started up with the history of the Turkish rug, how important the rugs are to the Turkish people, and how the weaving techniques are being lost as less and less people continue the tradition of rug weaving. It is all pretty fascinating as you listen to the history of the country and their nomadic culture. So the wheels started turning and we thought maybe if the price was right we’d consider a rug. It was a big “if”.
We made it to the rug shop and were led into a large showroom with the rest of our tour group. Talk about gorgeous. Rugs were on the walls, on the floors, rolled up on displays. They felt divine. If you’ve never felt a Turkish rug I highly recommend rubbing your hands and feet on a silk on silk rug. Just don’t spill on it as it will set you back a very pretty penny.
The presentation started after we were all given free drinks (yes alcohol was flowing freely – we declined the Turkish Raki). I don’t know who the guy giving the presentation was exactly – ie manager, owner, etc – but boy was he good. He could sell ice to Eskimos. The presentation lasted about 30 minutes and in that time we must have seen and walked on 50 rugs unrolled in front of us. All were absolutely gorgeous and I would have taken them all home. Unfortunately, my pocketbook is not as deep as Queen Elizabeth’s so we couldn’t bring home the replica of the rug she bought from the store last year (price tag: approximately $1.1 million, photos all around of her and this guy and that rug). It was beautiful and definitely would work in a palace.
We made it through the presentation and started just browsing around. No prices were given during the presentation so we went into this whole browsing experience blindly. We quickly found that our price range wouldn’t go too far but we were ok with that. We ended up with the neutral colored wool on wool rug and it looks great in our living room.
Now some fun facts about that rug. It is hand weaved using a double knot. The double knot means that as the rug is walked on and “stressed” the weave gets tighter and the fibers will not fall out of the rug due to the double knot technique. This rug took someone between 7 and 9 months to make working every day. Turkish rugs appreciate in value. Used rugs cost more than new rugs because the older rugs have proven to be good “strong” rugs.
So we are stomping on this rug every day when we get home. This darn thing better prove itself as a rug and better look new in 50 years when we pass it down to the next generation in our family. LOL.
So there you have it, the rug. It was quite an ordeal to get it and one that we will not be forgetting any time soon. If I can figure out how to upload to YouTube, I’ll post the video I have from the bus ride where our tour guide begins the discussion on the rugs and the history.