Cem Elİbol, who lives in Aksaray province, sends goods such as rugs, carpets, and old agricultural and household equipment that he has received from villages and repaired to the Far East and European countries along with the U.S.

Having started to collect unused household goods that he saw at junk dealers' shop nearly 15 years ago, Elibol, 48, visited villages and took the forgotten goods, which have a historical value in his view, to his collection.

Receiving rugs, carpets, radios, gramophones, baskets, vases, cradles et cetera from villages via mediators, Elibol started to exhibit them, after repairing, at Galerihane which reminds a nostalgic museum.

Turning a part of his house into a workshop, Elibol makes new products out of old rugs, which cannot be repaired with the patchwork technique.

He sends these hand-made renewed products to many culture and art lovers in various countries, especially in the U.S., Japan, France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark and Holland, through internet and exporter companies.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Cem Elibold said that he has been interested in works that he sees as a historical heritage since his childhood.

Implying he was very sad when he saw historical goods at junk dealers' shops, Elibol stated he started to collect them in order to reuse them. "I am disturbed to see that goods are thrown away as a little piece of them is damaged. For instance, rugs become useless if they have small holes. I collected these pieces with my own means. A friend recommended that I evaluate them when the number increased. Then I opened my workplace for not only revenue but also making people see the goods reflecting our culture," he added.

Drawing attention to the fact that foreign people are interested in these old goods along with Turkish ones, he continued, "The goods with Anatolian motifs attract attention. The rugs and patchwork pieces are favorites of Americans. The color of every country is also different. I mostly send goods in pastel shades to the U.S., while vivid colors are generally preferred by Europeans. Far Eastern countries like Japan demand small pieces. Copper things are generally sent to Germany, France and Belgium. In recent years, our products have been in demand with the effect of historical films. We introduce the Anatolian culture to the world in this way."

Elibol reported that they repair the goods brought by mediators at their workplace or at tinsmiths' shops in the city.

"They are mostly rugs, wood and copper goods. We especially prefer Anatolian products. We produce pillows out of unused rugs. We send our products abroad through both the internet and mediators in Istanbul. We plan to sell our products, opening new sales offices abroad soon."

Ali Aktar, who works at the workshop, said that culture and art lovers often visit him and stated, "You can see Anatolian rugs, old goods, copper and wood items dating back to the 1900s in here. We transform cradles into a different form, ornamenting them. This place is a kind of ethnography museum. It features nearly a lot of 100-year-old Anatolian works. Therefore, students and history lovers visit us. Our first aim is to introduce our culture."