Turkish Delights - Istanbul shopping

Most of my Istanbul shopping experience was at the Grand Bazaar. I would have loved to have gone further afield and found some hidden boutique gems, but will have to save that for my next visit! Having said that, I had a great experience at the bazaar and came home with some beautiful pieces which you can read about here. It was great to just set aside a few hours to allow for a meander around the endless narrow corridors, soaking up the colours and designs of fabrics, clothing, scarves, jewellery etc etc.

Endless patterened cushions. Even boots were highly decorated.

I didn't buy any rugs, but was seriously considering some of these beauties hanging on the wall.

Endless wares as far as the eye could see. Bartering is still used here, but not as much, with many vendors having pretty fixed prices.

The clothing below is vintage. I love the hot pink and gold.

The fabrics below are modern cottons printed in the folkloric style.

Piles and piles of decorative slippers.

Clothes for kiddies.

A wall of pretty vintage trinkets from Uzbekistan.

Pomegranates are often used in cooking and there were many beautifully decorated ceramic versions to buy.

I loved the floral vase below.

Fabric Friday

Anyone who follows me on Facebook or Instagram will know that I made a little trip to Istanbul recently. I only got back late last night and I am still processing it all and thinking back to all the amazing things I did in the four days I was there. I will be adding photos and accounts of my adventures onto my blog over the next few days, but today I want to focus on the amazing fabrics I bought while I was there, seeing as it's Fabric Friday and all!

Needless to say, I had a wonderful time scouting around the famous Grand Bazaar, a crazy rabbit warren of shops selling everything from textiles, to leather to trinkets and rugs, and everything in between. You get a lot of hassle to buy things, but it's all done in a  friendly manner and the Turks are very friendly, if a tad charming too.......!

When I finally decided to delve into a shop, there was always a drama with a little negotiation on prices, and then the fabrics were unfurled in front of me.

There was an amazing selection of fabrics and it was quite difficult to be selective!

Once inside the shop, you are often offered a glass tea and a seat to perch on.

As I eliminated some of the fabrics from my choice, I lay the rest out on the floor to see what I had.

Most of the fabrics I homed in on were ikat fabrics. This is a technique that sounds painstakingly fiddly, where the pattern of the fabric is dyed onto the yarns before they are woven. This creates a characteristic blurriness to the design and is a result of the extreme difficulty the weaver has of lining up the dyed yarns, and is what I love about them!

 Ikat fabrics are produced in many cultures, from India to Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Japan.

I think a majority of these ikat fabrics were actually produced in Uzbekistan on hand looms.

As you can see, my favourite colours tend to be pink, blue, purple and green. I'm looking forward to adding some appropriately bright linings to compliment the outer fabrics.