Beautiful blues from the mountains of Kyrgyzstan

A couple of days before leaving to the Selvedge Fair in London, our new Spring collection of Shirdak rugs arrived.  I had a quick look in the boxes but only now I had time to describe them and place them on our redesigned shop online.

The new collection of Shirdak rugs gives you a real spring feeling

Together with the workshops, we tried designs in new colour combinations. The results  are a welcome addition to our collection. The fresh orange and off-white colours give you a real Spring feeling.

The Scythian design rugs in pink turquoise looks modern and make a perfect combination with metal and industrial furniture.

Scythian design in funky colour combination

This time, we also produced the traditional carpet in multicolour as the Kyrgyz and I always love. These big shirdak are of an exquisite quality of felt.

New collection of traditional shirdak rugs in multicolour combination

A small collection of farmer rugs also arrived. These rugs are made by the locals in small villages, felting, dying sewing their own sheep wool. All unique adorable items.

It’s great that already a few were sold.

Shirdak-Selvedge-Spring-fair

To tell you the truth, I am quite nervous. On March 31st I will take part in the Selvedge Spring Fair in London. Travelling in Central Asia makes me less stressful than one day in London. Anyway on this fair I will present the Enosis Bloom collection 2012.

I am very enthusiastic about the new collection of Enosis and in my last blog  I promised you to tell more about this unique fashion label.

Enosis is a small independent Dutch label that makes fantastic designs.The signature of Enosis is a blend of past and present. All designs are handmade and therefore only available in limited editions.

The Style of Enosis is a combination of androgynous silhouettes inspired by the Victorian era, black romanticism, suit-like pieces with a timeless magic. Every garment has its own soul.

For instance, the combination of a roughly shaped linen jacket with delicate white garment is the typical Enosis style. A romantic combination of a white robe-manteau with a balloon skirt or a formal pinstripe coat brings back memories of a tastefully dressed lady from the 19th century.

Expression and individuality are the main goals.

The latest collection BLOOM captures the sense of early spring, the freshness of morning dew, the pale colours of the first delicate flowers – the start of new things to come!

Special attention is given to the finishing touch and to the interior works of the garments.

Follow Enosis at Shirdak, with a special exhibition during the month of April.

Shirdak presents the Enosis Collection Bloom at the Selvedge Spring Fair 2012

embroidered wallhangings with birds flew over from Central asia

This year I had a very special birthday. Since a couple of weeks I decided to go back to my roots: textiles from Central Asia. It makes me happy. In these days of economic depression we need to load ourselves with positive energy, don’t you think?

For me, positive energy is to be surrounded by tribal and Central Asian textiles. It feeds my creativity, it fills me with dreams.

Just before my day of birth I was in Central Asia, for a week. A quick visit on which I bought lots of kilim pillows, nice suzanies and last, but not least a whole bag filled with funny children’s hats from Afghanistan.

Trying to find the balance between a healthy commercial company and a place for people to be inspired is always my challenge for the shop. If people can hear the stories of ancient times when men was more connected with nature, using the earth in a less spoiling way. I hope I can welcome them in my world.

Don’t get me wrong I know I am dramatically romanticising those days. Anyway on my birthday, I received the nice kyrgyz embroideries which I found a week before and I was happy.

The same week I decorated the shop with not so old, but brilliant colorful suzanies, watch the birds I told you about in one of my last blogs.

And on top of this creative colorful boost I was attracted or dis tracked by the fashion designer Enosis. More on that in blog 26

Enosis new collection BLOOM at Shirdak

Hope to meet you soon

New collection felt hats from Kyrgyzstan

Once a hat was an indispensable part of your clothing.  The hat you were wearing could tell a stranger whether you were married or not, in mourn or what class you belonged to.

Nowadays , almost everywhere these signals have disappeared. The hat gives you protection against the cold or the sun. But mostly it expresses your individuality. If you want to get ahead , get a hat according to an ad slogan.

A nice mix between tradition and modern arrived in our shop today.

A collection of funny, funky hats from Kyrgyzstan. Traditionally the Kyrgyz hat is made of felt with a border of embroidery. The man wear the kalpak, a high felted white hat with a black border of velvet.

Inspired by the history of the soldiers of Central Asia, new designs come on the market now. These hats are all handmade, warm and very original.

Chapeau for the modern Kyrgyz hat!

detail felt hats

When I look at the sky and I see the birds flying I feel a little jealous. They are so happy, free and liberated of borders. They can go everywhere, and have this great overview all the time.

Birds are symbolic metaphors for human moods and a range of emotions. In general the bird in art and also in the art of textiles is the symbol of liberation and freedom.

Since ancient times, birds are considered as special animals because of their capacity to fly towards the sky, the realm of the sun. Such a capacity was also accepted to be a feat belonging to the shamans. Therefore, the bird symbolism has been extensively used in all shamanic cultures. The original cradle of shamanism has been Central Asia and has spread to the ancient world from this region.

The Birds connection to the sky has been thought of as a supernatural link between heaven and earth. They can be seen as the carriers of the soul between heaven and earth.

In the East Indian myth, every bird in the world represents a departed soul. In Christian art, birds often appear as saved souls!

Birds on flight represent hope, beauty and transcendence of our soul.

The meaning of different specimen of birds:

Crane is a symbol of long life and immortality.

Doves and nightingales are good luck.

Eagle typifies power, resurrection and generosity

Nightingale suggests love

Owls  represents death and darkness yet it can also bring wisdom, insight and virtue.

Peacock heralds spring, birth, new growth, love.

Raves: imply bad luck

Robin: Gypsies see robins as a bringer of good luck.

Sparrow: symbol of hope, fertility and renewal of life.

The symbolism of birds

a cabinet filled with piles of tribal textiles and rugs, collect them at Shirdak

When I was a little child I always loved to sniff in the linen closet and play with the nicely and neatly arranged stacks of white linen. In the wardrobe the world to me seems soft and freshly organized.

As an adult I created my cabinet with nice piles of textiles. It started with European bed linen and ended up with a chest full of Central Asian embroideries, ikats and weavings, delicious! It always gives me a rich and happy feeling.

A closed wooden chest filled with textiles makes me also very curious. What is inside. Is it handmade, freshly smelling, what kind of stories are stored together with the textiles?

Once we visited the Textiles Museum in Staphorst, a small traditional protestant village in the Netherlands. The curator used to open the wardrobe for tourists. He always gave a lecture of 20 minutes. But when we arrived he found soul mates, we let him talk as long as he wanted, we discussed every piece in every pile on every shelf of this 19th century collection. It was a great day not only because he was a good speaker but opening the wardrobe was like opening a treasure box of stories.

In the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest they also have a linen chest with 4 shelves full of Hungarian textiles. When I saw this small room with the traditional textiles I could feel the good spirit of the community. Textiles made in a good spirit give the community strength, richness, luster, the bright side of life.

Rich feeling in the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest

My Central Asian quilt with Russian printed textiles

Every year begin of January I have to count all my products. This is a boring project, the only nice thing about it is that I also have to count my stock of traditional textile items, the dresses from Kohistan, the ikat coats from Uzbekistan and other tribal textile garments.

This time I noticed that I was looking for printed fabrics in my Central Asian textiles. Recently I continued reading a beautiful book written by Susan Meller “Russian Textiles, printed cloth for the bazaars of Central Asia”. The book is 200 pages full of pictures of amazing printed fabrics designed and produced in Russian factories between 1860 and 1960.

Every lining or back of Central Asian textiles is worth keeping an eye on what kind of fabric has been used. Besides the fact that it is very pleasant to enjoy all the different prints, you can also use knowledge of these patterns to determine the age of a garment.

In the book of Susan Meller on page 158 there is a picture of roller-printed-cotton probably Russia late 19th-early twentieth century influenced by French home furnishing design. End 19th century France had a leading role for designers from the United States,  Europe and Russia.

In my stock I found a patchwork full of printed cloth from Russia. This quilt, I bought in Peshawar 15 years ago. I tried to find back the prints of this quilt in the book of Susan Meller. And surprisingly yes, I found one pattern in the book and on my quilt. It is the same pattern, but in a different color combination as the one of page 158.

The Russian print in my patchwork is the same design as on page 158 in the book Russian textiles of Susan Meller

Exhibition 2011 Christine Mayer and the tribal textiles day May 19th 2011

Looking back on an exciting Shirdak year full of success and surprises.

In 2011 we started with the exhibition of the Christine Mayer Peace collection. With a beautiful article in the magazine Selvedge we were happy to have this new brand in our shop.

This exhibition was in Shirdak style. We combined the Christine Mayer fashion made out of 19th century flour bags with our collection traditional textiles of the Miao, a tribe from Guizhou, China and the Central Asian embroideries.

From Kashgar tiles to modern scarves by Dagmar Binder

The tribal textiles day in May has proven to be a stayer as annual event. In 2012 we will organize a whole weekend. On Saturday May 19th and Sunday 20th 2012 Shirdak will be full of traditional textiles from all over the world. Keep an eye on the blog for the programme during this weekend.

End of June 2011 we promoted the new collection of the artist couple”Felt for Architecture”. For years,the modern wall hangings made of felt are a welcome item at Shirdak. This time the artists made a beautiful collection inspired by the Japanese carps. One of the Pelle di Carpa wall hangings found its way to Florida, USA. We hope it will get famous over there.

Lake Son Kul in Kyrgyzstan

During the summer of 2011 Shirdak travelled through Kyrgyzstan , see our blog. We returned fully inspired by this beautiful country. We came back, loaded with new ideas and a lot of shirdaks, the kyrgyz carpet.

The 20th anniversary of the Kyrgyz Republic was in the picture, during the second half of 2011.

New Design High Heel Boot

We had an article in the Dutch news paper “Parool”, a  fashion show by Anneke Copier and a nice exhibition on Kyrgyz nomad culture in our shop.

Our new design high heel boot, see blog “High heel boot”, was promoted on the fair Meesterlijk and it turned out to be succesful. Especially the kyrgyz type boot looked awesome.

For 2012 we want to continue this embroidered high heel boot . At this moment we are producing a shoe format , made of Egyptian embroidery . Also a leather variation will arrive in the shop during spring 2012.

Welcome at Shirdak 2012, the gallery of Central asian textile art