Kyrgyz slippers - from the wool to the final product

My husband brought me a pair of slippers from Kyrgyzstan the first time he was there. I loved them as they were quite warm.

But I’ve worn a hole in them and needed another pair.

These are made of wool - and hand made there in Central Asia. We were able to go visit the factory where they were made.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

First we went to the house of the man whose business makes them and chose from among some of his inventory which is in a building on his property.

Sorted by size. We got 2 pairs of size 39, one 37 and 3 size 42. These are European sizes. Each shelf you see has the same size slipper on it.

We bought several pairs to bring back to Poland with us - two for me since I wear slippers every day - I now wear out more slippers than I do regular shoes!

The others were for gifts for our loved ones!

The man then offered to take us on a tour of the business.

First of all, we did some checking and found what looks like what they were doing here on Etsy. The company who makes the ones we bought doesn’t yet have a website or on line presence.

I think putting the pictures in a gallery where you can click from one picture to the next is going to be the easiest way for you to “get” what is happening. Otherwise, I’m afraid this post will simply be too long!

Raw wool

Picking out the bigger chunks of yucky stuff

Look at that brown and white wool. They use both!

They put the wool through this machine to get some of the worst of the chunks of stuff out

The wool is starting to get straightened out here

After the first machine, they take it over to the big carding machine where they put it in one side and it comes out the other end

This is how the carded wool looks - light and fluffy and the strands are organized!

Close up of the wool!

Inside the room where a bunch of ladies normally work to form the piece of wool that is to become slippers. First they use a form to know how big to make the wool.

They take some pieces of that carded wool and cover the form loosely. They completely cover the form.

They will completely cover the form and press the wool down They do this 3x to make the piece of wool the thickness it needs to be.

If they want a design in the slipper, this is when they do it. they take the colorful wool - either dyed wool or from the brown wool and make the design now.

Because of the way wool fibers grab each other, they form a felted type fabric with their hands - it is still loose and fluffy. It becomes truly felted in the next room.

The design becomes part of the piece of wool.

The owner was playing around by putting a dollar sign in the design. The ladies who normally work there were all on their summer break. They take off 2 weeks every August.

They take these formed pieces of wool pieces to the room where the slippers are formed.

The wool is placed around a form which is the right size and is actually pounded with a stick and formed to the form. They also use water to help the slipper take shape.

When the slippers are done, they shave them to get the little fuzzies off!

These are ready to go into the dryer! They make 40 pairs of slippers a day in this little factory. They have about 20 employees!

Isn’t that neat? I don’t know if you caught the numbers, but at this little factory they make about 40 pairs of finished slippers a day. With 20 employees, that averages out to 2 pairs per person per day. We paid about $12 per pair of slippers wholesale. You can do the math.

No, people don’t make much!

This is one of the things I’ve wanted to show you from our trip to Kyrgyzstan in August!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!

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