Living an expat life means that people come in and out of your life regularly, often in two to three year cycles. Since we arrived in Egypt four years ago (FOUR YEARS!) this just happens to be one of those years where we are staying and several of my closest friends are leaving.
A normal reaction to leaving is to suddenly try to do all the things you’ve been meaning to do for years and have never gotten around to – usually sightseeing and shopping. One of the friends who is leaving arrived the same year we did, but somehow she never bought very much. She’s doing her best to make up for that now, before her shipment goes.
In an effort to be helpful and supportive, I accompanied her to the Tent Maker’s Souk on Monday this week, which is downtown near the Khan al Khalili bazaar.
The last time I visited the Tent Maker’s Souk was in 2004, when I was in Egypt as a tourist. It’s a marvelous place to go, but also very dangerous for me as a total, unrepentant textile whore. Just look at it – you’d have to be totally indifferent to fabric art or have will of steel!
(Click any image to enlarge)
These are essentially applique pieces done on canvas. Originally these were done in large sheets of geometric design and used as the sides of wedding tents and such. Modern tents are usually done with fabric printed to look like the original applique and most of work done in the souk now is for smaller items like wall hangings and cushions.
This was one of the first pieces that caught my eye, however the shopkeeper didn’t want to bargain very much on the price. Since it was one of the first shops that we looked in, we decided to move on and see what else we could find.
This entire street is nothing but shops selling applique and fabric so we had loads of choices!
After looking at many variations on the same design, my friend ended up buying this lovely piece from a seven year old boy who was tending a shop – for about 1/6 of the price of the first piece I admired. When we saw this one initially we thought of it as “small”. Notice how much bigger the items look when you get them alone!
This is a fairly common sight in downtown Cairo – flat bread delivery by bicycle. I was thrilled to finally get my own picture of it, even if the light could have been better.
I really did think I might make it out of the souk with my money safely stowed in my wallet, and then I saw it. A small tree of life (27″x35″)
I was hesitating between this tree of life and another longer one in a shop across the street when the shopkeeper said he had a larger one in his shop around the corner. We followed him to his other shop – a stuffy room in a building down a mostly deserted alley. I am thrilled that we went though because it was there I found this item.
It was love at first sight. This is a design based on an ancient Egyptian motif and was unlike any of the other appliques I had seen that day. I had to borrow a little money from my friend to get both pieces, but how could I resist? The main challenge now is finding a place to hang it. It’s so pretty I want it in a place where I will see it often, but at 38″x49″ it has to have a fairly large space to hang. Since it’s smaller than the first one I admired and was also only half as expensive, I think I made a good choice all the way around.
Got this last shot on our way out. Another hasty shot – a car or person is always walking in front of you – but I still like it.
Those are very nice. I particularly like the swamp and all the birds.
by Sandy Updyke June 18th, 2010 at 11:21 amThe quilts are beautiful. I really like the last one too. It’s a bit different.
by Shelley Munro June 21st, 2010 at 3:33 am