We would like to thank you for your patronage regarding our historic and traditional art. Herewith we would like to provide you with few tips which will enhance the value of your carpets and kilims. Usually people wonder and ask us as to which is the best carpet of all and an easy answer would be- The best carpet in the world is the one that you like the most because it is like classical music and once you like it you will always like it as you will end ııp living with it, so then it will always have its place in your house no matter how many times you change your present de'cor. It is like love at fırst sight and your heart will tell you which one should go home with you and only your heart is the best judge of all and not somebody else when it comes to making that final decision.

When you see the one that speaks to your heart simply get it or forget it as handmade Turkish carpets and kilims are one of a kind and can not be duplicated because over thinking spoils the magic sometimes as you can still fınd people who are looking for that oriental carpet they had seen in Tangier years ago but it is not coming back. Let us not forget that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and some of us may prefer tones of green while the others may prefer different shades of red and this brings us to another very important fact about the handmade oriental carpets....the price of the same carpet will change according to the appraiser who will price your carpet or kilim. For some people this may be hard to appreciate, especially for those who are used to wall-to-wall carpets having a fîxed price based on square footage. Finally it would be appropiate to understand why carpet auctions will cause the same carpet to fetch different prices based on the buyers taste as well as obsession for that piece, it would be fair to remember that your Turkish carpet and kilim is a piece of art and should be treated as such.

Oriental carpets have a justifiable reputation for being extremely durable, but they are not indestructable, and proper care and maintenance will greatly increase the beauty, longevity and the resale value of your rug. As for those Turkish handmade carpets that are listed as collectibles which will have a tremendous resale value in time one must realize that certain know-how is needed in order to get the best return for your investment. In addition to normal wear and tear central heating, air conditioning and a number of household chemicals can have a detrimental effect on the rugs.However wool.cotton and cocoon silk are marvellous rug-making materials and provided that some simple precautions are taken, your Turkish carpet will last at least several generations.

Padding: The purpose of a padding (or an underlay) is to protect the rug from being squeezed between two hard surfaces as över a period of time uneven pressure can effect the fibres. Before vacuum cleaners were used carpets were beaten by a stick in order to get the dust and the dirt out which resulted with a carpet that was unevenly beaten and in time that effected the squareness of the rug. One can place a handmade carpet over a marble,parquet,tile floor or even over a wall- to- wall machine made carpet as long as it does not have a thick pile which will cause the handmade carpet to walk with you. So in this case either a low cut wall- to- wall carpet or an underlay made from the combination of animal hair and jute with a coating of rubber on both sides would be ideal.

Cleaning: Should be undertaken regularly and slowly. Unless your carpet is very old or in a poor state of repair, in which case a specialist cleaner should be consulted. over the years we have encountered several unhappy customers complaing about the very poor quality services rendered by some professional cleaners. At this point it would be most appropriate to advise our customers to carefully choose a reputable specialist who will provide them expert services. Please remember that if you would like to enjoy your oriental carpet during your lifetime and hand it over to several next generations you must take good care of it and educate your other family members regarding the maintenance procedures. Cleaning an oriental carpet should start from the reverse side-not the pile side-with a carpet sweeper or vacuum cleaner which will cause grit to fail out of the pile. At this point the importance of buying a good quality handmade carpet becomes essential as the reverse side becomes clearer-finer the knot count higher the resolution turns out- so you can always use the reverse side of your oriental floor decoration whenever it is needed and especially during parties with a lot of people dancing around with high heels and drinks being served no one will notice the back part of your carpet as long as you will keep it as a secret. Vacuum cleaners with extremely violent beaters should be avoided because they may damage the foundation and we should not let them suck the fringe part of the carpets. Traditionally carpets were washed by villagers at the basin of a fountain or along the river banks and then they were laid under the sun until they were completely dry. Nomadic people living at higher altitude still use the snow as a cleaning agent. One can use a sponge and detergent free Ivory soap and lukewarm water to have a fairly good basic cleaning however today technology has advanced and has come up with other effective cleaning methods.

Shampooing: Recent carpet shampoos will not only remove the grit and dirt but they will also put a degree of essential moisture back into the fabric. If the rug becomes too dry, which can happen in centrally-heated or air-conditioned rooms, the fibres of the pile material may become brittle and the pile starts to wear out. By the same token if the rug is allowed to remain damp over a period mildew may form and cause permanent damage to the foundation of the carpet. Shampooing an expensive, old or a delicate rug should preferably be undertaken by a specialist company rather than a general cleaning company as the techniques and chemicals used on synthetic wall-to-wall carpets may not be suitable for the vegetable dyes used in the making of several handmade Turkish carpets. Last but the least the usage of hair dryers on wet handmade carpets is not recommendable while some shampoo brands will dry out within half an hour even in a dark room which facilitates the hard work of transporting especially larger sizes of orientals to the nearest garden to be dried under the sun. During the purchase of your handmade Turkish carpet it would be a good idea to make sure that your rug has been prewashed twice and suntested twice against fading of the dyes and the bleeding of the colours. We have carpet farms in Southern Turkey where these rugs are suntested during the suınmer days. Without this suntest procedure it would be very diffıcult even for carpet experts to look at a finished handmade carpet before it is washed and dried to say that the dyes which were used in the making of that particular carpet were properly prepared.

Stains: Here are some very basic stain removal applications:

1-Alcoholic Drinks-Mix lukewarm water with %90 alchol to clean with a soft sponge.

2-Pet Urine-First wipe it with a sponge while the stain is damp and after it dries wipe it off with white wine and vinegar.

3-Mud-Dry well and then vacuum it.

4-Chocolate-Use a damp soft sponge with a touch of ammonia to wipe.

There are all sorts of stains and it would be most advisable to have them removed by a true professional specialist.As a simple reminder it is only more appropriate to caution the owners of our beautiful handmade carpets to gently scrub the stained area and not use force as well as cleaning the rest of the carpet at the same time would give you overall a cleaner look. If you wish to contact us by e-mail regarding other possible stains we would be very happy to give you more suggestions.

Maintenance: Sometimes keeping your oriental carpet as clean as possible might be considered suffıcient for maintaining the value of that carpet however true this may be for your wall- to-wall machine made rugs it certainly is the first step for the handmade rugs and other relevant information must be provided so that your beautiful handmade Turkish carpet in which you have invested will please you and all of those family members in the future who will inherit them. Most people buy a house and decorate it according to their taste but how many of those realize the fact that handmade Turkish carpets will outlast everything and everyone in that house and is it not the same reason why some real estate people put up those homes for sale with a few oriental carpets in an empty house and through decorators suggest the future owner to decorate around those carpets? Just like the mint condition cars must be well maintained and the vintage wine must be properly stored for handmade carpets to be a real collectible assets they must also be cared for very gently in order to enjoy them through several generations and end up with an antique carpet that has a tremendous resale value.

Going around the world and visiting museums where old carpets are on display one can notice the effect of those centuries on the handmade carpets. One of such wonderful museums in Istanbul; Turkiye is the Ibrahim Pasa Islamic Fine Arts Museum where eighteen pieces of Selcuk period handmade carpets are on exibit.Iıonicly they were discovered by the German ambassador who visited the Mosque of Alaattin Pasa in Konya (ancient Iconium in the Bible) in 1905. He then told the people in the mosque that they were the original carpets of the mosque which dates back to 1221. If he had not done that we may have not have those carpets today. Of those eighteen pieces some are in fragments while some others are almost complete showing us the tremendous importance of correct maintenance. These eighteen pieces are some of the oldest ones around and we must also mention the famous Pazarik carpet discovered by the Russian archeologist, Rudenko, in 1953 in the Ural mountain range, where old nomadic Turkish tribes lived and one of those tribemembers was buried in an iced old burial tomb. When everything melted they discovered this old saddle cover which has been the oldest carpet to survive in the last twentyfive hundred years. Next time you are in town if you have not already seen it please visit the Yildiz Palace Sale Kiosk where we have the largest wool -on- cotton Hereke carpet which is 406 square metres and that is aproximately 4368 square feet in size. So we know that with proper care they can last a very long time and now we must tell you what to do to get the best out of your Turkish handmade carpets. One of the recent reasons why it is becoming a dying art form is that the labour force has become more sophisticated in this globilised world and it is becoming very hard to get the young ladies interested in the making of this traditional art while they can find other jobs which will pay them better, such jobs which are a lot easier than making carpets. So in the last forty years we have noticed a decrease in the production of such carpets and some have already become extinct (like an original Kars carpet) and a similar case is true with genuine Navajo carpets which share a tremendous past with some of our Turkish carpets. Here are some additional recommended maintenance precautions:

1-When you leave your home unattended for a period of time make sure you mothproof your wool handmade carpets by wrapping them with naphthaline moth balls.

2-Excessive fading can happen if you expose your carpet to strong sunlight. Even worse if you let the sun only effect a portion of the carpet and not the rest of it. Like the drivers arm that gets burned this would be detrimental on your investment.

3-Please do not put heavy furniture-without proper padding- on a portion of a room size carpet and nothing on some other portions of the same carpet as this will wear out the pile unevenly which defınitely will decrease the resale value even though it becomes an antique carpet. So occasionally move the carpet around so it gets even traffîc as much as possible.

4-Some simple repairs can be done at home such as when a portion of the fringe gets detached. By using matching colured thread one can sew in the missing fringe. Serious repairs must be done by professionals and in such cases like when a corner is curling leather strips sewn along the edges may be the solution to the problem.

5-High heel shoes, dirty shoes and wet shoes can be detrimental. So please treat your oriental handmade carpets with utmost care if you want your farnily members to enjoy it as long as that tree of life represeııts your family tree.

We thank you for your wonderful audiance and hope that each day you walk over our carpets or enjoy them as wall hangings it will remind you of our country and hopefully those memories will bring you back.