Search

There are records showing that textile products obtained by using felting methods are known from neolithic times. It is known as the oldest textile surface creation technique and art that enables producing by using the wool of the animals grown and without weaving and using tools. Products formed by felting were found in the frozen Pazyryk burials of the Huns (400 BCE). However, it is thought that it developed as an element of life style and form of Central Asian nomadic Turkish tribes. It has been known and made in the Turkish world for thousands of years. This textile art, together with the Turkish tribes moving from Central Asia to the west, moved to Anatolia and then to the Western world. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the area of use of felt has narrowed and even disappeared due to the new formations and products brought by industrialization and technology. The existence of the designs supporting the use of felt in daily life is the most important proof of the transfer of this art from the tradition to the future. In many parts of the world, while the artists and designers struggling to bring the art of felt into action present the uniqueness of the work of art, the limits of the design dimensions are being challenged. In this study; it will be focused on the usage areas in textile surface of felt, which has been discovered with the idea of human creativity by using the method of interlocking various fibers and which is included in the traditions of some societies, and on its applications and methods in garment design. While analyzing the relationship between felting method and textile surface and garment design applications, an analysis will be made on historical and contemporary applications. In the study, in which descriptive screening method was used, the literature related to the historical development of felt was reviewed firstly and then applications regarding different felt surfaces made with different techniques and methods were examined.

The felt, one of the oldest techniques in handicrafts, was developed as an element of the life style of Central Asia and moved to Anatolia by the Turkish tribes turning to the west. Felting, which is the subject of the research, has been built and continued in Afyonkarahisar for centuries. In Afyon, at the end of the 19th century, there were felt stores over 150, but the numbers of the store had decreased by 7 today. In this study the historical development process of the felt and the felting in Afyonkarahisar were examined. In the center of Afyonkarahisar, were interviewed with declining craftmen. The recoil felt making stages with Mehmet, Mustafa and İsmail Erkuş from these craftmen at Erkuş Atelier were photographed.

Résumé : Le paradigme de la tente d’or : entre les Mongols et l’Islam. L’auteur de cet article s’intéresse à « la tente d’or » et aux tentes faites de textiles d’or mentionnées dans les sources médiévales comme symboles du pouvoir des khans mongols. Après avoir analysé les récits des témoins directs ainsi que ceux des historiens musulmans médiévaux, l’auteur conclut que ces termes n’étaient pas tant utilisés pour décrire des objets différents mais pour désigner deux idéologèmes issus des pragmatiques nomade et islamique. L’expression mongole « tente d’or » est un élément ancien de la culture nomade impériale et reflète le continuum espace-temps où l’idée spatiale de « centralité » est associée à la dimension temporelle de l’éternité du lignage de Gengis Khan. Les tentes faites de textiles d’or sont une métaphore du pouvoir et de la nature divine des souverains mongols de Perse – une métaphore créée par les historiens persans de la dynastie mongole issue d’Hülegü. Abstract: This article focuses on the ‘golden tent’ and on tents from the golden textiles depicted in the medieval written sources as the symbols of power of the Mongol khans. Having analysed the reports of the direct observers, as well as those of the medieval Muslim historians, the author concludes that these terms were used not so much to describe different objects as to designate two different ideologemes reflecting the nomadic and Islamic pragmatics. The Mongol ‘Golden Tent’ is a historical element of the nomadic culture, the imperial space-time continuum where the spatial idea of ‘centrality’ is coupled with the temporal dimension of the eternity of the bloodline of Chinggis Khan. Tents from the golden textiles is a metaphor of power and the divine nature of the Mongol rulers of Persia, that was artificially created by the Persian historians of the Mongol Hülegüid dynasty.

Felt is described as a type of very thick warpless cloth, made by compressing wool in various ways without weaving, came up by humans’ covering up and sheltering needs against natural conditions in the first ages. Turkish nomads made ornaments and the objects they use completely from the wools derived from the animals raised by them. Wool allowed them to produce everything required for them. Felt has developed specificly in Middle Asia and oldest samples of felt are also found in there. Turkic tribes, which went towards west from the regions called as “Felt Land” by Chinese, has brought felt art with themselves and provided continuance of this art in an area involving up to thousands of kilometers from Balkans to the east borders Mongolia which also includes Anatolian and Iranian plateaus. Felt making is a handicraft which develops by traditional way, exists in Konya city centre from past to present. Konya Felt making is handed on “from father to son” or by “apprenticeship” from past to present. Felt products found in museum and storages of Konya has been investigated.