When you come down from the Castle, there’s no way your feet won’t stop in front of her shop. From the open window, she invites you to come inside. If you think you are a foreigner, “Welcome” greets you! It’s no problem if you don’t want to buy anything, she continues her work undisturbed, until the moment she expresses interest in any of the products she has exhibited. Deshira Maja lives a life of weaving carpets. She says she started it as a young girl, after a professional course organized by the state. Today, she has her own business in Kruja Market. Hundreds of carpets, rugs, covers, rugs, have come out of her hands. Even colorful tapestries, which she says are unfortunately no longer produced, and the tradition is dying out…

She has set up the loom in the shop, so that anyone who enters it can see it and understand that the work she does is not a trick and has no resemblance to goods coming from China or with synthetic fibers. She immediately gets up from the bench where she is sitting to show us the difference. The technique she uses is double-sided, the colors are the same and equally beautiful on both sides of the carpet and you can use it however you want, while the technologically-made ones are only laid on one side. To weave an alley she needs 7 days of patience. Weaving is an individual job and she does everything herself, from providing the raw material, the wool, the tip (intermediate thread), to the knitting, until it is ready to be laid.

The threads that Desire uses are sapphire wool. At this point she makes no concessions. Work for him is not only business, but also pleasure, and he wants the client to remain satisfied and come back again.

The colors she uses are basic: red, black, white, green… Even the motifs are typical of the area: with an eagle, which is liked by tourists, by hand, even floral motifs have been introduced. “Before, we produced a lot. We were working for export. Once they brought us the models from Dubai,” she says.

When you ask her what scheme she uses for the patterns, she looks almost surprised. “I remember them”, he says and cannot hide his laughter in front of our surprise. In 50 years, it is ready to reproduce those models at any time. What seem to us like mathematical formulas, for him are a breath.

There is no crying that there is no work, even though the competition is strong. What worries him is the impossibility of inheriting the tradition. “When I was 16 years old, my mother decided to teach me the craft, then I took a course, and I have no one to pass it on to. Young girls have no interest in learning, their minds are on their mobile phones. Perhaps, if the state will fund courses during which they learn and are paid a minimum wage, there may be interest. In this way, the tradition is not lost. Look, this tapestry is the last one I made. No one makes them anymore, because they require a lot of work,” she says, while continuing to work on weaving a carpet with motifs. Meanwhile, another customer appears at the door, attracted by the fiery colors of her carpets, displayed in front of the store.