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The Basketmakers Make A Living The Hard Way 30/11/2010

Serkan Say and his family living in Malkara district of Tekirdağ subsist on basketmaking which was the traditional job of them for generations. Shrinking demand to basket make subsistence more harder gradually for Say family.

Only a few family continue to make baskets to subsist even it was the main subsistence way of too many Gypsy groups in the past. Say family is one of the families who still continue wattling. Serkan Say and his family generally sell their basket in Station of Malkara. They sometimes have a chance to sell their baskets in local bazaar organized by the municipality.

Serkan, who emphasize that subsistence is getting harder and harder for them every passing day, explained their life to Cingeneyiz.org team with those words: "Our ancestors were also basketmakers. I have always been doing this job for as long as i have known by myself. This is not a difficult job. But you have to be patient and skilful to make baskets. We are preparing hazelwood, which we cut in mountains, with knife. Than we are making baskets using them. We are selling baskets we made between 15 TL (10 $) and 35 TL (23 $) accorging to their size. Demand to basket have been decreasing since plastic cape started to be produced. However there are some people who know plastic cape are not same with our baskets. They buy our baskets. Some of our friend make smaller baskets to sell tourists as ornament. If authorities give us any chance, we could be able to teach our crafts to new generations."

Source: Cingeneyiz Tekirdağ