September 2025 - Feride and I were in Türkiye for a month to set up a lovely workroom overlooking the Aegean Sea (Ege). After setting up the work space we ran a week long trial workshop teaching Tuna how to make a pair of pants. We took a pale blue bicycle with us, named the 'Ege Bisiklet', which was great for exploring the local area and hopefully connecting with a local cycling community. The highlight of the cycling aspect of the trip was unofficially and accidentally joining the Izmir Gran Fondo ride around the region. It was beautiful riding with roads closed for the event.
The plan is to visit every year or two, run workshops in the space, enjoy cycling around the area and cooking up Turkish feasts. Feride also set up a couple of lovely bedrooms adjacent to the workroom so that Tuna and his mum Inci could comfortably stay with us for the week.
Finding local suppliers was also on the agenda. Most fruitful was a visit to Izmir for haberdashery supplies and an industrial park dedicated solely to shoe making tools, materials and supplies. After the sewing workshop concluded we spent some time developing a sandal design and made a first sample which Feride is still wearing today and probably for years to come.
