Hand Loomed Cotton Washed in the Black Sea

On the coast of the Black Sea, a fishing village going back to 700 BCE is still humming along, not far from the Strait of Istanbul where the forces of Asia and Europe come face to face. 

Here in Sile, a women's community honors a 150-year-old craft tradition, hand-looming organic cotton, washing it in the saline water of the Black Sea, and spreading out their cloth to dry on the quartz sands of their beach.  The ritual makes the fabric durable as well as uniquely soft.  The gauzy Sile cloth breathes, as comfy as one could wish on a salty hot summer day.

I love slipping into something saturated with sea and sand and a story that old.  I think of the women of this fishing village as also dipping their nets into the sea rich in memory; stretching their dreams across a wide, wide shore.  I want to wear that.  

All the Best,
Susan Hull Walker