Embroidery Articles - Turkish Embroidery

The Sharp Needle
© 2002

I’ve just returned from three weeks in Turkey, mostly in the far east and the southeast of the country.  In my group of eight, three of us were textile artists who were always inspecting the carpets and textiles in every home and museum that we visited. And since I’m not quite back mentally from my trip, The Sharp Needle column this month is going to be on Turkish embroidery.

Young women used embroidery to speak of things that they did not dare to put into words.  They used colors and motifs in their scarves, waistbands, coverlets and carpets to express feelings of love, yearning and desire.  A yellow scarf sent to a maiden’s beloved meant she was in love and missed him.  If she embroidered her scarf with cypresses, she was thinking of death from longing.  Green denoted desire; blue flower motifs denoted hope and enthusiasm.  Even a married woman did not speak freely to her husband of her desires but the scarf she wore on her head and the decoration she embroidered on her waistbands were ‘letters’ to her husband.   Needlework stitched in green silk meant ‘I am pleased in my new home and I am getting along with my new family as smoothly as the green grass.’  A bride who embroidered pepper motifs on her scarf indicated that ‘There is nothing but bitterness between us.’ Some of the motifs had specific names like ‘The mistress has her arm around the master’; ‘I am going – follow me’; ‘Lover’s quarrel’; ‘Eyelashes of the lover’;  and ‘Nest of the lovesick lover’.

Court embroidery was very different from dowry embroidery and was extremely ornate; it reached its height in the 16th century for the Ottoman sultans.  Rich silks were embroidered with elegant spiral lines that were then embellished with pomegranates, artichokes, roses, carnations, hyacinths and of course, tulips.  You may not realize that the tulip is indigenous to Turkey and was introduced to Holland in the early 16th century by the Turks.  In 1492, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain evicted all the Jews and Muslims who were living in Spain.  Most of the Muslims went to North Africa, the Middle East and Turkey.  Holland and Turkey welcomed the Jews and many emigrated there and thus the Turkish and Dutch began a political relationship based upon this emigration.  When the ambassadors met for the first time, gifts were exchanged and the Turks gave the Dutch tulips.  To this day, the tulip has great religious and cultural significance for Turkey and the tulip motif is prevalent in embroidery, carpets, tiles, and even on gravestones.

The court embroidery was all sharp needle embroidery and, although known by different Turkish names, the prevalent stitches were satin stitch, herringbone, double running, chain, outline, bargello, and shadow work.  There is also a circular stitch that is similar to a spider stitch.  Instead of weaving around spokes, the circle is tacked at four points at each successive revolution, for 10-15 revolutions.  Earlier embroidery followed a more classical design and was usually stitched in silk thread.  As western influences made their mark on Constantinople, the embroidery took on a more baroque look and the designs were more ornate.  Gold thread and jewels were used extensively in the later baroque embroidery.

Because we were in the eastern part of the country, most of the textiles that we lusted after on this trip were kilim carpets.  Carpet designs and colors in Turkey are very specific to the region of the country where they are produced.  In the west, where Greek and Roman civilizations had a major influence on Turkey, the carpets are usually knotted pile, may be entirely of silk and have more elaborate designs.  The colors are more varied because the west has more rainfall and has access to a greater variety of plants with which to create the natural dyes.  The eastern part of the country is much more rugged; people today still make their living on small parcels of land and nearly every family still has sheep, goats, and cattle (if they are well to do).  Their carpets are more utilitarian and are usually woven kilims.  Since the countryside is mountainous, dry and tends toward desert in some places, the colors are more limited with lots of reds, blues, and browns.  The motifs are more geometric and tribal in origin.  In the high country we saw nomads setting up their summer homes of black yurts (round tents) on lush, grassy plains in order to graze their huge flocks of sheep and goats.  Bright, rough wool kilims always covered the dirt floors of the nomad’s yurts.

Many women in Turkey still cover their heads with scarves.  In the villages, many of the women decorate their scarves with oya, a tatted or crocheted edging that is specific to the region where they live.  On ‘Friday best’ scarves, the oya may also have beaded embellishments.  It is quite lovely to see the women’s faces surrounded by the beautiful oya decorated scarves.  If you really understand Turkish custom, the way a woman wraps her scarf around her head is indicative of what region of Turkey she is from.

Today the art of embroidery and hand made carpets is being actively revived.  Many cooperatives in the country train young women to embroider according to the old traditions.  The DOBAG project teaches women to weave and knot carpets with naturally dyed wool, using traditional patterns.  We also visited a state school for young women in Hakkari, far up in the eastern mountains, where the women are taught to weave traditional kilims.  Extensive research has been done on Turkish carpets in the major museums of the world and these patterns have been reintroduced to the cooperatives.  The women benefit by having some income of their own to contribute to the family (or not) and we benefit with beautiful textiles to adorn our homes.

Turkish Embroidery, Gülseren Ramazanoglu, Van Nostrand Reinhold, NY. 1976

http://www.dobag.com  Turkish woman’s cooperative that sells their product in the US through Return to Tradition.  The women visit Palo Alto and San Francisco each year in the fall and bring looms to demonstrate weaving and knotting and guest lecturers lecture on natural dyes and weaving techniques.

http://www.melitour.com  Excellent tour operator in Turkey who runs a tour with an in depth focus on weaving and textiles in Turkey.

Copyright © 2002 by used by permission.

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