WORKSHOP

The Hole Picture

The 13th European Textile Network Conference was held in September 2005 in Izmir, Turkey, and included a tour of the Woven Legends Restoration workshop. After seeing it in operation, Katie Sucklingreports on the secrets of this remarkable company’s success.

The issue of restoration versus conservation in all realms of the arts continues to ignite debate. Carpets and textiles are particularly susceptible to the ravages of time, exposure to light and general wear and tear. This is, after all, an artistic medium where function is usually as integral to its value as form. A visit to the Woven Legends Restoration workshop showed exactly how and why restoration work should be carried out. Its location in the free port zone of Izmir is carefully considered, thus avoiding the importing and exporting restrictions and expenses applied in the rest of Turkey. Director Hasan Opçin started his career as a restorer, establishing his own restoration workshop in Istanbul in 1980 along with his four brothers. In 1982 he met George Jevremoviç of Philadelphia’s contemporary carpet producers Woven Legends and from this friendship blossomed the idea to collaborate and establish a workshop in Izmir. In 1991 they realised this ambition, bringing with them ten of the repairmen from the Istanbul workshop. The business partners have recently separated amicably, with Hasan keeping the workshop’s name and clients. Their first two years were very difficult, particularly since they had to convince customers that their higher prices reflected a unique and better service. As you enter the building, the overwhelming sight is the rows and rows of restorers, (approximately ninety) working diligently at tables in various stages of the restoration process. Hasan explained that it is customary in Turkish culture for men to handle and repair antique carpets, whilst women weave new pieces. The workers carry out the restorationin complete silence, a necessity for the level

of skill and concentration their delicate work requires. What seemed so astonishing to me was both the efficiency of the operation and the care taken in every step of the process. According to Hasan, three men are employed purely to finish the carpets (clipping, ironing, washing and combing) and this last stage can take up to three days. Almostany kind of handmade item can be restored, whether it be a European tapestry, a kilim, an embroidery, a

pile-woven carpet, an ikat or a silk fabric. Hasan has even invented a method of extending the warp on carpets where replacement warps are needed, avoiding the usual ridge created in this extension. I was only allowed to take photographs from a distance: dealers and collectors are not always keen to have their pieces, or restoration work, publicised. The washing and dyeing processes that takes place inhouse, as well as the selection of the dyed wool play an essential role in the restoration process. I was shown catalogues containing 16,000 hues of colours that the dyers are able to create, whilst three thousand shades of dyed yarn are stocked in-house ready to use. I was surprised to learn that synthetic dyes are used as well as

natural dyes. Apparently almost all restorers do use synthetically dyed yarn because the colour is stabilised, whilst natural colours can fade in an unpredictable way, potentially making restoration work jarringly obvious. As it was explained to me, vegetal dyes are not chemically pure substances but rather mixtures of chemically related derivatives that can change their composition during their extraction from the plant or through the dyeing process, which makes it difficult to produce large amounts of a specific shade for restoration. Abrash is welcome within modern handmade rugs, but less so when aiming for authenticity in antique rug restoration. In special cases, the remains of old carpets are used

and their woolen yarns recycled: one of Hasan’s most difficult cases involved matching the wool of an antique Agra carpet. It proved so problematic that it took six months to find the correct replacement –again a mark of the care taken with each project. Despite the enforced silence, the company provides an ethically sound working environment that many fellow restorers in the rest of the country would envy: employees have their own canteen, regular breaks and a non-smoking policy within the building: a rare find in Turkey. It is difficult to leave the workshop unimpressed. Stepping out into the bright sunshine of a Turkish autumn, I felt that restoration of this calibre can never be a stitch too far.

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