Oya Sighting at the V&A shop

[PattyD]

I was looking through the Victoria and Albert Museum in London at their online shop (this link shows all the jewelry made in what they call embroidery, but I recognize as Oya.)

[crazytatter]

what is Oya?

[PattyD]

It's a Turkish form of needle lace. They make flowers in strings to attach to their head scarves. The colors and the patterns have specific meanings, a woman can broadcast how she feels about her husband and inlaws by making edgings of various kinds and wearing the scarf in public. Also prior to a marriage, the prospective bride delivers a pile of decorated scarves to her future mother-in-law. This transaction takes on a lot of different meanings depending on which patterns the bride chooses, and how well she executes the patterns. The prospective bride's choices transmit how she feels about the impending marriage and her relationships with other members of her new family. Sadly these traditions are fading because young women don't want to expend the effort it takes to make the scarves.

Some of us here on InTatters are trying to learn the skill.

[IcePrincess]

Definitely Igne Oya, and very beautiful ones at that! Definitely the kind whose photos I use to create my own, but I'm not yet that perfect.
Admittedly in the last weeks Igne Oya completely caught me and I barely touched a tatting shuttle ever since. It is not that difficult to learn and for me it's way easier to simply and creatively do my own designs.
If anyone has questions about how to do Igne Oya (yes, I do insist on the complete name. What InTatters is about is called Mekik Oya in Turkey.) please do contact me. I'm preparing for giving the first courses at present and my teaching material has been finished.

[rsmre]

Hello Ice Princess,
I admire the Inge Oya that I have seen in the You Tube videos, and elsewhere on the internet, but I cannot find information on how to make the needlework. Any information that you can give to me will be greatly appreciated.
rsmre

[carolivy]

These are gorgeous!

[crazytatter]

maybe there should be a separate section for Igne Oya? I just googled Igne Oya, and those lace are really beautiful. Love to learn more about it.

[IcePrincess]

If Kersti is willing to do a section for Igne Oya, I'm with you. After all it's less "needlework" than a special kind of needlelace.

I gladly share my knowledge. I'll only have finish the translation of my "how-to" booklet to English until we can proceed. For someone who's done needlework before it is not difficult, really. It is all consisting of one special knot - like tatting - only that this time the knot is done by needle, not by shuttle. Give me a few more days and I'll send you the info on where and how to get the booklet, probably by download.

As for material: I can make up a beginner's kit with some of the necessary thread, practicing cloth and practicing felt if you like me to. Since this easily fits into a normal envelope it's easy to ship worldwide.

Otherwise I'd suggest you look for turkish naylon (or nylon) crochet thread in turkish size 50. In Germany you easily can buy it at shops catering to bead crocheters. On ebay sunnymailbox has a wide range of colours to offer.
Working with cotton is possible, albeit a bit more difficult since cotton is not so slippery.
Working with silk is definitely great and I love to do it, but silk threads probably will be too expensive for beginners' projects.

I have quite a number of flowers worked by now (some on show at my website) and for most of them I'm doing patterns, but once you got the basics, it's really easy to get creative and create your own flowers.

[Susan B T]

Very lovely pieces. Hope to get to the V&A the next time I get to London.. a couple of years down the road.

[helen]

Hi all. I just googled inge oya and the pics I saw are exquisite. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. It is something that I would love to learn, so Ice Princess, please count me in when/if you will proceed with the lessons, as I am very much interested. Hugs