yazma and lace work history

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Turkey has been home to several big civilizations in the world for over three thousand years and that's why the handcraft items from Turkey always stand out with their quality. Traditional Turkish scarves are called yazma, made from finely woven, very lightweight cotton fabric with open texture. it was only made in Tokat, a city in the Anatolia region of Turkey which is famous for its several crafts that date back to thousands of years.

There are two types of yazma scarves:

  1. those in which the colors and designs are printed on the cotton fabric with the use of carved wooden blocks,
  2. those on which the prints are drawn and painted completely by hand using natural, organic dyes obtained from the local plants.
For wood printing, craftsmen hand carved wooden relief blocks and then masterfully stamped the cloth with natural, organic dyes made from the local flora. Unfortunately, the wood printing has nearly disappeared and, the majority of yazma scarves are being made using serigraphy printing.


The printed fabric is then beautifully trimmed by the women crafters in fine needle lace work which is done with sewing needle type of needles and, not with crochet hooks. That is why the produced lace work is so fine and delicate and difficult to craft.


The authentic handmade Turkish lace work (oya) and traditional Turkish scarves are now mass manufactured on a large scale in the fabric.