Global Arab Network | Felt Industry - Important Traditional Handicraft in Syria

Translate this article to your language:

GANPublications

e-Publications

Add Site to Favorites

Add Page to Favorites

Make Homepage

Share This Page

RSS Feed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |

Felt Industry - Important Traditional Handicraft in Syria

Global Arab Network - - Maha Karim

Wednesday, 09 June 2010 21:10

Felt_Industry_Important_Traditional_Handicraft_in_Syria

Syria (Hasaka) Felt industry is one of the traditional handicrafts which has flourished in the northeastern Syrian Province of Hasaka due to the availability of raw materials as large number of sheep herds are bred in the area.

Feltmaker Saif Eddin Hassan said that felt is mainly made of sheep wool, but sometimes it is made of camel or goat hair. The felt is made through beating the wool or using automatic compression.

He added that the color of felt is similar to that of the natural wool as it is either white, black or brown and sometimes artificial dyes are used to decorate the felt with geometric shapes and drawings.

The felt is a four-meter long and one-meter wide compressed textile. It has many advantages as it is very flexible and smooth in addition to the fact that it isolates sound and heat.

The felt has an aesthetic and health value as people prefer to use it rather than the synthetic sponge for furnishing setting rooms or bedrooms in addition to using it for making saddles and decorating the walls of their houses.

Producing a piece of felt takes about six hours as feltmakers separate the black and white wool to tease it and pull out the knots. Then, they draw on the wool and wash it with soap and water. After that, they put it on a piece of cloth with a suitable size as requested by the customer and cut the drawing with special scissors.

The felt is wrapped on a cylinder with two ropes tied to a wooden stick and then the feltmaker compress it with a special hammer and spread it on the ground for exposing it to sun rays to become dry.

Director of Hasaka Cultural Center Ahmed Edris said that the felt is used for furnishing the floors and walls of the rooms in addition to making dolls, pillows, carpets, saddles and socks. In the past, felt was used for making hats, fezzes and linings. (SANA)

Global Arab Network

Add comment

The opinions of the authors in articles published are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Global Arab Network
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published comments are the opinions of private individuals and do not reflect the views of Global Arab Network