Buldan Weaving

Buldan, a district of Denizli, is the weaving centre that meets the demand of the market to the greatest extent.

Although the majority of the people are involved in weaving, there are only a small number of handlooms in Buldan. Having started the production with whipped looms in 1910s, Buldan first used motorized looms in 1951. Raw materials used for weaving are cotton yarn and, to a lesser extent, silk, artificial silk (floss) and more recently polyester and Orlon yarn.

Types of Buldan weaving are ‘peştamal’ (breechcloth), ‘üstlük’ (robe), ‘sofralik’ (table linen), ‘çarşaf’ (linen), ‘handkerchief’ (mendil) and ‘tablecloth’ (masa örtüsü).

Robe weaving has an important place in the daily lives of women. Robes, which are intended not only for headwear, but also for covering the waist, are square-shaped, checkered weavings in various forms with or without patterns and/or embroidery. The weaving technique used is bezayağı.

Linen weaving is produced in two manners, namely in pieces and metres. Whereas piece work in Buldan is woven in the fringed and traditional manner, metre work linens are less commonly produced.

Linens woven in cotton yarn are of a high quality and floss is only utilized for scarves. However, weavings produced with polyester yarn in both weft and warp or only in weft are of a lower quality.

Handkerchief weaving is mostly woven on handlooms at sizes of 50x50 cm or 70x70 cm. However, it has also been produced on motorized benches in recent years.

Silken, cotton and flax handkerchiefs are known as ‘peşkir’. Handkerchiefs woven solely from cotton yarn, on the other hand, are known today as ‘yağlik’.

Tablecloth is woven in the bezayağı knitting technique with silken or purl patterns.

Embroidery on the weaving used to be produced by hand and on frames; today, this work is done via machinery.

see...