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February 15, 2015

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Keeping Serb carpet tradition alive

A Pirot carpet has magical powers, they say, its colorful patterns and symbols designed to bring luck and protect from evil. Nearly every home in the eastern Serbian town has one.

Yet Pirot’s centuries-old craft of carpet weaving is in danger of dying out and a group of women have been fighting to keep it alive.

Pirot carpet-weaving is “a rare craft on the verge of extinction,” the Lady’s Heart group says.

They are made by local women from locally-bred wool according to rules laid down for hundreds of years.

“It takes a long time to weave a Pirot carpet,” said Slavica Ciric, who launched the Lady’s Heart business several years ago.

Weavers have dropped from 5,000 women a century ago to only about 10 professionals today, Ciric said.

Still, she said, they love what they do. “For most people, those are just colorful carpets, but we see more,” she said. “We see a story unfolding through symbols and colors.”




 

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