1st Post In The New Year

Hi everyone,

Its been a while since I have blogged, and my God has it been extremely hot here in Melbourne.  We got up to 46 degrees at one stage and it was practically impossible to sleep.  Luckily for me, the heatwave for now is over and I'm back to making things, collecting antique textiles and whatnot.

                                         















Above we have some of the things that I've done this year.  I made 4 oya lace scarves, some eye glasses cords and a cross stitch pillow case cover with lace edging for my spare room which I have matched the colours to.

I still cant believe I now OWN these beauties.  These cloths are HUGE, and are embroidered with metal using a special technique called "Tel Kirma" in Turkish.  Each stitch is individually done and there is no moving between stitches.  You finish one stitch and then start another.  It is very pain staking and comes from the northern part of Turkey from an area called Bartin.  These 2 cloths are antiques and would've taken the woman who made them 6 months at least for each one, so I'm quite happy to have these in my collection now.

Ahiretlik Oya- "friends to the end Oya"

Zeki Muren Eyelash

Deer Horns

Wasp Oya

Leblebi (roasted chickpeas) Oya

Above we have some new comers to my collection.  The first one Ahiretlik Oya is from Kutahya, Turkey.  A girl makes this for her friend on her wedding day to signify that they will be friends no matter what.  We then have some bead oya scarves from Balikesir:  Zeki Muren Eyelash,  Deer Horns and Leblebi oya, while Wasp bead oya comes from Namrun.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this, my first post for the year.  Don't forget to visit my facebook page and give me a like (click HERE to be redirected to my facebook page)

Till Next time! Take care!

Collection!

So these are some of the things I was given by my M.I.L while I was in Turkey, So within 4 days of us arriving I'd probably already had half of my baggage limit.  Some of these things were given to her, and some made by her, but the ones I've chosen to start a collection with were the ones that she didnt really want to sell but didnt want to keep them either.  So I got them as presents :)

This is part one of the things that she gave me.  There will be more to come of course!

These 3 pictures are of scarves that were made by my M.I.L's neighbour
who moved to Konya from Izmir.  Only 2 of the sides are done with Igne Oyasi, which means
that some rural parts of izmir dont fold their scarves in half, they put one side of the oya to the front and the other
goes around their neck.  One possibility also as to why they do this is because of a saying in Turkish "dort dortluk" which is like saying "nothing is perfect (but God)"

This scarf was given to my M.I.L by a woman from Kutahya, she says she cant remember what flower
its supposed to be, but I think its Costuran, one of the oyas given to the sister in law.  You can tell that this is from Kutahya or around Kutahya because Kutahya oya always has intermittent motifs (cit)

This scarf is made with a mekik or a shuttle.  This one my M.I.L made.  This oya is called "Karpuz cekirdegi"
or "watermelon seed" in Konya

This scarf was also made by my M.I.L's neighbour from Izmir.  Its crocheted with beads and it is "orange flowers"

This scarf makes me laugh.  My M.I.L says that women back in the olden days didnt have
perfume so when men would come to the house to ask for their hand in marriage she would wear this sort of
scarf so she'd smell nice.  As you can see this scarf has cloves on it.

This oya was made by my M.I.L and is a pomegranate flower.  Its made by  bead weaving on a crochet chain.

This oya was made by my M.I.L, its a version of Kasla Goz (eye lashes) most old style scarves with bead oyas on them
were normally made for plain white scarves.

This is a prayer scarf or namaz ortusu.  My M.I.L made this one with beads.  She put this in my bohca (trousseau/sack thing pictured below)  This isnt like a normal white scarf its quite long in the shape of a rectangle.

This is my bohca!  Although the picture isnt the right way haha.  These are the sorts of things that M.I.L's put their daughter in laws, son in laws, in laws etc things that she makes for the wedding day.  Sometimes they are decorated with cross stitch flowers instead of igne oyasi like this one is.