Leather and Clay

members of our tour group get a chance to model

During our travels in the interior of Turkey we visited several manufacturing facilities.  These were touted as promoting local crafts. Two very interesting places were the leather goods factory and the pottery factory. I refer to them as factories only in the sense that they produced products for sale. The first we visited was on a tree-lined street near the ancient city of Ephesus. I'm not really sure how big the manufacturing area was, because we did not see the complete facility, but I suspect it included about 75,000 square feet, or about three quarters the size a Wal-Mart super center. Our guide told us to expect a fashion show, but we were not prepared for what we saw. It was a large room with a stage and runway. We sat facing the runway.   A young man in a sport coat and open collared shirt welcomed us to the business and asked that we enjoy the show.

Every thing about the show was western.  The music was western, and the fashions were western as well. The lights dimmed on the audience, floods lit up the stage, and the music blasted out a few decibels louder than the average metal band. The models came prancing down the runway, tresses bouncing, hips swinging like Saturday night hookers...it was great!  At the end of the show the models selected audience members to model some of the fashions. (I did not get selected.)

leather samples

After the show was over we moved to another building and were given a brief introduction to the virtues of their products. They made leather jackets and coats for some of the best known brands in the world. The leather is very thin, about the thickness of flannel. The hide is split by a laser. It feels like a soft fabric but with a smooth finish.  It can be wadded up and returns to its original shape. It is impervious to most stains.  The modern showroom had hundreds of coats and jackets for sale in dozens of styles and colors hanging from chrome racks. Salesmen scurried around anxious to help wall-eyed consumers.  I was reminded that it is the skin of an animal and will probably last forever. We did not buy. The least expensive one I saw was in soft black leather and cost $800.00, but it was beautiful and appeared to have excellent construction. One way to stretch your lira, though, was to buy a reversible garment.

Hand cast and decorated plate.

Then, we were back on the road again, into the real world of mud brick houses and acres upon acres of sugar beets. Tractors pulled trailers full of sugar beets. Women in kerchiefs and baggy pants worked in the fields and herded sheep.  We stopped for some food and a bathroom break. I had some chick peas cooked in olive oil with paprika and other spices.  It was delicious. We normally ate cheap at lunch, since this meal wasn't covered by the price of the tour. For some reason, I know not why, the assistant driver would wash the forty foot tour bus at every rest stop. By day's end it would have been washed as many as three times.  After a one hour lunch we were on the road again, in a very clean bus, to the pottery factory.

Anyone for tea?

 The town had a huge pot in the center of town at a sign with the town's name. The pottery factory was a large modern building of about fifty thousand square feet. There were polished marble floors and smooth stucco walls. There were decorative pots everywhere, some small and some as large as a man.  We were ushered into a small auditorium and introduced to the company by a Turk speaking impeccable English. I think they pride themselves in their mastery of English, but then I must remember these people have been traders and merchants since the days of the caravans and must communicate well to sell their products. We had a great demonstration by a potter. His hands deftly shaped the clay as the potter's wheel spun. He had been making pots for forty years and was at the top of his game. It was incredible! His skilled hands deftly molded clay into the shape of a large hollow donut then added pieces to it to form a pitcher like none I had ever seen.  To serve with the pitcher, the server would place his arm through the "donut" part of the pitcher. (This pitcher is seen  at the far right in the photo below.) After this demonstration we went to see the women painting the pottery. They used small brushes and felt tipped markers to paint the pots before they were fired in a kiln for the final time.  We saw a quick demonstration on how plates were cast from clay, then it was time to shop. The price of the clay creation depends not only on size or intricacy but which craftsman made it. Student pots are much cheaper.  In most cases our guide, Yesim, would negotiate a better price for expensive objects in the factories we visited. (She saved us $300 on a rug.)  Since I am married to an unabashed anglophile, it was necessary that we purchase a teapot. And, a beautiful one it was, with a beautiful design of tiny flowers on a vine in a repeating pattern.   The probability is very near nil that I will ever have a cup of PG Tips brewed in this pot.

a master at the wheel