‘Many littles make much’. The popularity today of over-dyed and patchwork rugs is entirely due to a unique recycling phenomena called ‘kirkyama’ which means ‘patchwork’.
Village people work to collect, clean and sometimes unstitch the original materials, which are then refined and re-dyed to produce a wholly new work. Sometimes the rugs are left whole and sometimes they are cut and shaped into beautiful patchwork.
And so the old transforms into something entirely new, which is functional and fits perfectly with today’s design concepts. The useful leftovers from the looms of Anatolia have found a new life and a new story to tell; a recycling project that truly ‘makes a little into much’.
MARY KELLY KILIMS, 53 Wood Street, Freemans Bay, M: 021 211 8904, www.marykellykilims.co.nz