site.btaBook about Carpets from Kotel Presented at BTA's Press Club in Sliven

The book Stories Woven into Carpets from Kotel by Dora Kurshumova was presented in BTA's press club in Sliven on Friday.

Kurshumova is the author of two other books dedicated to the craft of carpet weaving and its creations. In her newest book, authentic samples and live meetings with carpet weavers are presented. The author also describes models, motifs and compositions, as well as the processes related to weaving, the training of carpet weavers, and many more stories about the craft.

"This book, which is 224 pages long, was created from the stories of Kotel," Kurshumova said. A third of the book is dedicated to a single carpet that also decorates its cover. It is called The Tomb and it is believed that a quarter of it is a map of the town of Kotel before the fire of 1894 [which burned down most of the buildings in the town]. "Through a diagram attached to the book, I try to show the objects, the churches, the homes of the Kotel revivalists. I tried to tell the story of Kotel on behalf of the town itself", Kurshumova explained.

She pointed out that all the carpets described in her book have a story to tell. "Stories about the power of the herbs with which they are dyed, about the symbols that have a protective function, about [different] customs," she said. Kurshumova emphasized that the Kotlen carpet should be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List and expressed her readiness to help the museum in Kotel in drafting such a proposal.

Kurshumova also announced the topic of her next book, which will be related to the history of carpet making in Kotel during the 20th century.