Thursday, December 20, 2007

Kosovar Textiles

When my daughter went to get the mail this evening, there was a package from my best friend in Kosovo. These were enclosed. I knew he'd gone to a local bazaar in Pristina, but he told me he'd bought jewelry - not textiles! He had an Albanian speaker with him, so I'll have to question him tomorrow about these things. The crochet is absolutely exquisite. It's very well done with a fine cotton thread - just over tatting weight. I love it. My husband got a closer view of an individual motif so you can see the workmanship.


This weaving was also in the package - actually two of them, identical. The red lozenge pattern is very typical of most of Eastern Europe and is supposed to be a fertility symbol. I don't think my friend knew that part. The piece is made of wool, woven on a tapestry loom, and measures about a foot square.
There was also a business card enclosed for a glass artist in Pristina. Since my friend didn't enclose a personal note, I don't know why it was in there - if he purchased the textiles from there, or if he thought I'd like the fused glass work (I'm a big fan of fused glass.). The website has a lot of neat stuff on it, especially the glass Kosovar flags. A fitting metaphor, I think.

2 comments:

Andreas said...

That would be me. I didn't say that I bought jewelry! I just said it was there.... The bazaar was an invitation only thing run by the office. Everything in the package was hand made in/around Pristina.

For the rugs, the wool was hand spun, dyed, and woven. They were all of that particular pattern, a very old one, with various coloring and slight variations in the layout of the pattern.

The glass worker had a table there with several lamps and mostly jewelry (earrings and necklaces) that were very pretty.

Andreas said...

Oh, and the flag there is Albanian. The Kosovar flag is yet to be determined.