Monday, December 11, 2006

A taste from my travels....


...through Central Asia.

Here I am, sitting in Starbucks on Charing Cross Road in London. And thanks to an early Christmas present (my lovely new Dell Laptop) I am now able to post the first of my travel postcards. I'll try to keep these all textile related, but all of the other nitty gritty will be found over at 'Alison in Europe'.

Before booking my Asia Overland trip I had no idea of the importance of textiles in Central Asia. Everywhere in Kygyzstan and Uzbekistan you can find beautifully worked, but practical, items made from wool, wool felt, silk and cotton. Above is a 'summary' picture showing toasty warm felt slippers given to me in Kyrgyzstan (the warmest, most hospitable people!) and some hand embroidered silk and cotton items from Uzbekistan.

I don't know if my antennae have been raised because of my recent travels, or if there genuinely is an emerging trend for the Central Asian fibre work, but in the last two days I have been to IKEA and seen embroidered lamp shades and cushions in a Central Asian style, and then yesterday at the British Museum shop I came across the most gorgeous Kyrgyz wool felt christmas ornaments. I had to sit on my hands not to buy those - they were soooo gorgeous (sadly they're not on their online shop).

More details and photos to come...

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