Carpet hospital in Turkey has clients from around the world

Carpets that are hundreds of years old from Turkey and abroad are being restored according to their original design in a workshop in the Kaleiçi district of Antalya. 100-year-old carpets and rugs, which are used in houses and gardens or featured in exclusive collections and museums, return to life thanks to the carpet restoration workshop. While carpets and rugs are restored using original materials, their cleaning and maintenance are carried out with ultimate care. The duration of the restoration varies from a week to six months depending on the age of the material. Following the restoration, these carpets and rugs can be used for another century. The carpets and rugs, which come from the U.K., France and the U.S., are shipped back to their owners after restoration. Speaking to an Anadolu Agency (AA) reporter, Mustafa Canlı said that he and his two other brothers restore carpets in the workshop that was originally founded by their mother to weave carpets. Indicating that their job is to restore original carpets, Canlı said: "The restoration changes depending on the importance and the damage to the carpet. We can only revive collection pieces by weaving a piece of cloth. We repair with natural fiber. When we cannot find it, we paint the fiber that we can find."

The workshop repairs the damaged parts of carpets, while changing the stained parts in accordance with their original by renewing them with madder fiber.

"For each carpet, it is important not to lose quality and match the original. If you try to repair centuries-old carpets with recently produced fibers, you cannot match the repaired carpet to the original. Hence, we use old fibers. To find old fibers, we might cut a 100-year-old carpet to restore a 200-year-old carpet," Canlı added.

Canlı said that restoration of some carpets take six months. He said that their aim is to restore these carpets so that future generations might enjoy them as we do. Stating that they don't just receive shipments from Turkey, Canlı added: "We mostly work with carpet owners from Germany and the U.S. In fact, sometimes they send us centuries-old carpets that are displayed in museums through government channels. Sometimes, people bring their carpets in person or they send them via courier. Canlı complained that the new generation is not interested in carpet restoration. "We need to keep this line of work alive. We lack enough man power for the restoration so we work together with Akdeniz University," he added.

Akdeniz University student Keriman Karamancı, who is completing her internship at the workshop, said that they are reviving centennial carpets and rugs in the workshop. On the other hand, another intern, Tuğba Ayhan, said that restoring carpets requires hard work and concluded: "There are many techniques to restore carpets. It is hard at first, but it is also a unique experience. Our aim is to help these century-old carpets survive for another 100 years."