You could call it a hobby that got a little out of hand.

In 2014, I moved to Turkey on a Fulbright scholarship. I spent the next year living and working in the central Turkish city of Tokat. When it came time to leave, I wanted to bring home a memento that would do honor to the rich year I had spent in the city. While at the town’s antique market I came across a huge kilim from the early 20th century, and realized that a rug like that one would be the perfect object to remember the city by. It contained so much of the place: the wool had come from Tokat’s sheep; the dyes from Tokat’s local plants; the designs from Tokat’s long rug-making tradition.

The rug has been with me ever since, and every time I look at it I am reminded of the richness of the year I lived in Turkey. It reminds me of all the friendships, jokes, laugher, and learning that year contained. Later, in graduate school, I studied the art, architecture, and theology of the Eastern Roman Empire while at the University of Notre Dame. This gave me the opportunity to shuttle back and forth between school in Indiana and research in Turkey and Azerbaijan. But while my studies directed me to ancient mosaics and icons, I couldn’t help but be interested in the region’s rugs. So as my knowledge of wider Turkic culture grew, my appreciation for rugs as works of art deepened. I came to appreciate and understand the artistry behind not just eastern Anatolian rugs, like my rug from Tokat, but of the entire process of rug-making as it developed throughout the history of the region. As my understanding increased, my collection grew. And as my rug collection grew, I ran out of storage space. I started selling rugs to friends and neighbors and was met with such an enthusiastic response I decided to make my collection available online. Since then, I’ve expanded my network of friends in the trade, gotten better at haggling, and am excited to share the goods listed here with you.

Through this store, I hope to help advance the cause of particularity; I hope to help you create a beautiful place. Whether or not you buy something here, I hope this site gives you an opportunity to learn about the practices, materials, and traditions that each of these objects exemplify. I hope that this showcase of goods will act as its own argument against generic decoration and the thoughtless filling of space. And if you buy something from this place, I hope to make the personal practices and traditions of rug-making something comprehensible and fun, so you can carry, and pass on, that knowledge as you pass on your rug.

I live in South Bend, Indiana. When not selling rugs, I work as a grant writer, enjoy the vibrant local breakfast scene, and host dinner parties.