Oya

Would you believe it?  I had never heard of oya until we went on our study tour to Turkey and then, lo and behold, there was an article about them in the latest edition of Embellish.
I have some scarves with oya attached to the edges.

At the women's market in Odemis (a town we really enjoyed visiting), we saw a lot of them.

We also met some ladies who were making them as they sat at the roadside waiting for custom.  The ladies we saw were making them on what looked like a sewing needle and doing what looked like french knots - but they became 3D pieces.  I even bought a pair of earrings as they were so interesting. 

(The link above takes you to an article about oya and explains that there are various means of making them, including using a sewing needle.)

Some of the other people on the trip had bought strings of oya.

You can see one of Mehmet's scarves in the background

Setting up the exhibition

On Monday, a friend and I spent hours (not doing my tapestry - stress!!!) setting up the exhibition of the felted pieces we made in Turkey.  We have included some other textiles that we bought, as well as some photos of places of interest.  Tony Stewart also donated some pictures of craftsmen we visited, as well as a collage of designs.  (Here is a link to his Picasa pictures of the trip, they are wonderful.)

I have been going through my photos of the trip to Turkey - it is very hard to limit what we will put in the exhibition as there were so many magnificent sights.

Here are some from Ephesis.

More pictures of Turkey

While I'm giving my back a rest from the tapestry, I'll put up some photos I took in Turkey.  The focus here is of interesting things we saw at roadside stops.

Protection from the evil eye.  We saw these all over the place.

This is one of several ladies we saw selling their amazingly intricate, hand-done crocheted doilies.  We saw the ladies making them while they sat and waited for custom.

More hand-made, crocheted work.  The crochet hook was tiny!

A tree covered with tissues and fabric, whirling dervish  figurines in the foreground.

Felting in Turkey

While having a rest from my tapestry, I decided to go through my photos from Turkey.  We are planning to have a display of the felt pieces we made, so I looked specifically at those photos.  I took nearly 100 photos over the two days!

Here are some pics from the first day, the laying out and deciding, day.  As you can see, there was a variety of approaches, all effective.

Turkish Cultural Foundation

We attended a very interesting talk by  Prof. Dr. Nurhan Atasoy  at the Turkish Cultural Foundation.  (The website for this foundation is well worth a visit.)
We were treated to a lovely afternoon tea before listening to a very interesting presentation about the foundation's website.  Then Prof. Dr. Nurhan Atasoy talked about traditional costumes of various Turkish groups and showed some beautiful examples in her slide show.  (You can see some examples here.)
We saw some similar examples in some of the Ethnographic museums that we visited.  One museum was especially beautiful. It is a private museum but has some gorgeous clothes and textiles.  We were not allowed to take photos there (one of the few places that did not allow photography, as long as we did not use flash).  But it is well worth a visit if you venture to Turkey.
Unfortunately, the museums were usually reasonably dark and I could not take any photos.
But ...
here are some pictures of Henna Night outfits that were in the market.  Deniz, our guide, explained that they are worn by the bride, prior to the wedding, when the girls have a night out (and the bride has henna designs drawn on her palm).  Only the bride dresses up.  The accessories were amazing also.

Fringes and rug finishes.

While we were at the rug making factory, I took some photos of the various ways the fringes had been done.
There were so many beautiful rugs.

Here are a few of the fringes.  It was interesting to see the different ways they can be done.  Maybe I can utilise the different methods if I ever go back to weaving or if I decide to do a specific edge to a tapestry.

Turkey - felting workshop

The stand-out event for me on our trip to Turkey was a two day workshop of felting with Mehmet Girgic.  Mehmet had prepared the prefelt and cotton before we arrived and then demonstrated the technique.

pre-felt with cotton felted in

preparing thin bits of roving

using wet roving to outline and then fill flower

wetting the pieces again before rolling

Mehmet and Rabia demonstrating the 'dance' used for rolling the felt

We had two days in Konya to work on our pieces.  The group managed to come up with a variety of designs and Mehmet and his wife Rabia, and one of their apprentices, helped us with both technique and design elements. Great fun and a wonderful workshop.
We are hoping to organise a show, featuring the group's felted pieces in early November.

Home from Turkey

I have been away in Turkey for three weeks on a study tour arranged by RMIT.  We visited a large number of  magnificent sites, starting from day one, immediately after leaving our luggage at the hotel - too early to get our rooms.  That first day, we were exhausted after the long trip but the places we visited were so beautiful that we were able to forget that and simply be stunned by the magnificent sights.  We went, along with a lot of other tourists, to Aya Sophia (another link here) and The Blue Mosque (online images here).  Stunning!
Here are some shots of Aya Sophia - they are not fabulous because we could take photos but not use flash, as seemed to be the case in most of the historical sites in Turkey.  The place is immense.

We visited so many amazing sites that they occasionally blurred together.  I have taken nearly 1000 photos, so will go through them and my diary to organise in my mind the fabulous places we visited.