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    Needle Lace Flowers: Creating Exquisite Flowers and Borders with Just a Needle and Thread
    Needle Lace Flowers: Creating Exquisite Flowers and Borders with Just a Needle and Thread
    Needle Lace Flowers: Creating Exquisite Flowers and Borders with Just a Needle and Thread
    Ebook301 pages54 minutes

    Needle Lace Flowers: Creating Exquisite Flowers and Borders with Just a Needle and Thread

    By Figen Cakir

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    About this ebook

    An introduction to the traditional Turkish needlecraft of Oya.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStackpole Books
    Release dateOct 1, 2013
    ISBN9780811753135
    Needle Lace Flowers: Creating Exquisite Flowers and Borders with Just a Needle and Thread

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      Book preview

      Needle Lace Flowers - Figen Cakir

      Oya Needle Lace

      The moment I first laid eyes on oya needlework was not as profound as one might imagine. With the maternal side of my family living in Istanbul, I would visit Turkey almost every summer as a child, and the experience was always an intense riot of color, sound, and smell. It was customary for flower-sellers and local shopkeepers to have colorful scarves wound around their heads, the trims of which looked unique, but so perfect and so brightly colored that you would be forgiven for thinking they were artificially made or a part of the fabric.

      Being a girl, I was gifted many oya-trimmed garments of my own. With each visit over the years, I managed to garner quite a collection of beautiful headscarves and linen, each with its own memory of when it had been given and by whom. It was only natural for me to be given these gifts—handmade items for the home are a major part of the traditional Turkish trousseau. Starting when a girl is born, chests full of handcrafted linens and clothing are created over many years and then stored, layered with lavender bags, sprigs of dried thyme, and pure rose-essence soap to keep them fresh and clean smelling, until that girl’s wedding day. The tradition continues to this day, regardless of wealth, education, or location. Nowadays, however, many mothers employ other craftswomen to make a trousseau for their daughters, or they buy readymade items from special trousseau shops, either because they have not learned the handicrafts themselves or they simply do not have the time.

      AGE-OLD TRADITION

      Turkey is a unique place. A country so unexpectedly modern in many aspects, it follows trends along with the rest of the world, and yet it remains deeply loyal to age-old traditions when it comes to marriage. In classic Turkish tradition, still adhered to in many rural areas, daughters are not given away lightly and the groom may sometimes have to ask for her hand several times before he is deemed suitable. Sometimes, in very rural and old-fashioned villages, a dowry may be requested. It is not unheard of for couples to elope if the potential groom cannot meet the demands made on him and the pair is unwilling to wait for him to save money. In Turkish tradition, while the groom’s family meet the wedding costs, it is up to the bride’s family to prepare and present a trousseau worthy of their precious daughter. The contents of this trousseau are then proudly displayed about the bridal home for all to come and view the day before the wedding. And it is from this trousseau that thousands of years’ worth of inherited craft and talent spills forth. Every color imaginable is used to trim scarves, guest towels, and household linen with oya needle lace and classic crochet.

      SO WHAT IS OYA?

      Oya, or igne oyasi (pronounced eeneh o-yahsi) as it is also commonly known, is an intricate form of crochet made using silky thread and a small sewing or tapestry needle to create a series of tiny loops and knots. It is a needlecraft that requires patience and careful attention—so much so that it has earned a place among Turkish idioms that relate to things that require painstaking effort. For example, oya gibi means difficult like oya and the verb oyalamak, to put off or delay, is used to mean an act that keeps lengthening in time. Once you start to make flowers of your own, you will see that these idioms have arisen with good reason.

      Pieces from a bride’s trousseau might include practical wares for the home, such as table linen, but also decorative pieces to wear. Traditionally, pieces are trimmed by hand, using oya needle lace techniques.

      Although the techniques used to make oya needle lace are relatively simple and repetitive, it can take time to progress to the more adventurous designs, so it is worth bearing in mind that it is a slow and time-consuming art. Nevertheless, it is one that will give endless pleasure, because you will be improving your skill with practice at the same time as mastering the first type of crochet ever known.

      An Anatolian lace-maker trims a brightcolored scarf. She is crocheting oya flowers to match the flower motifs in the fabric.

      My Oya

      For me, what started as a passing interest in oya needle lace developed into a deep-rooted passion over time. Having received little gifts here and there, I began to do research into the background of oya. At first it seemed daunting to try making oya needle lace for myself, and I satisfied my interest in the craft by reading about it, seeking it out, and watching seasoned crafters at work.

      This only made the craft appear more difficult and I was convinced I would be incapable of mastering such a fine art (sometimes referred to as the most difficult needlecraft in the world). Finally, a couple of years ago, I decided to overcome my fear of failure and try it for myself—I wanted to feel the thread twist and knot in my fingers, and to experience in practice what I had already discovered over a decade’s research.

      During the first few months, I struggled to reconcile my extensive knowledge of oya with my seeming inability to create it. My instructors—local Turkish housewives in my neighborhood, whose fingers could hold and shape a mass of threads with alarming dexterity—assured me that it had taken them years to perfect every aspect of oya needle lace, having been introduced to the craft aged ten or thereabouts. Although that assurance did not serve to make me feel any better, as they had obviously had a head start of about three decades on me, I was determined not to fail them in their tutelage.

      I now love to make leaves and flowers of all kinds and do so with considerable skill. Many of my pieces mimic their counterparts in the natural world, while others have no equivalent in nature. In making this book, I have had the pleasure of working with women from my local Turkish community and of combining the extensive knowledge of these naturally talented women with my own designs and vision. I am grateful to destiny, for bringing me to this small, modern Turkish town just a couple of hours outside of Istanbul, where I am lucky to meet someone new and talented every day.

      This village woman wears a headscarf that she has trimmed with three rows of intricate oya lacework.

      Oya History

      Traditional Turkish arts and decorative crafts are very distinctive in their appearance, color, and style. They immediately stand out in any setting or medium. The role of oya needle lace in this is as a complementary craft; it adds a touch of completion wherever it is applied.

      It is not known for certain where oya first originated, although research points to Anatolia. Oya needle lace was certainly known to traders traveling along the Silk Route connecting eastern, southern, and western Asia with the Mediterranean and Europe, and the first Europeans to be introduced to it were the French, around the 13th century. At the time, many crafts and innovations were brought back to the West by merchants and many countries, among them Spain and Italy, were greatly influenced by the weaving and knitting techniques of the East, taking inspiration from colorful patterned socks and garments made between the 12th and 16th centuries.

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