In Anatolia, needle lace (iğne oyası) does more than decorate the edge of a headscarf or a handkerchief. It is the craft in which a woman works into the stitch what she cannot say aloud, in which a bride informs her household of her state of mind, and in which a young girl's patience is tested in the years when her dowry chest is being filled. Amasya is named alongside Rize, Konya, Bursa and Kastamonu, the best-known centres of this art, for its own distinctive needle lace style. The women of the region make it with nothing more than a needle and a fine thread, usually between daily chores, in the midst of a conversation with a neighbour or on a long winter evening. Every flower that results is both a piece of handwork and a statement that those around it can read. Today in Amasya the work goes on not only in homes but also in courses, in workshops and at benches that send orders to distant countries.

What Oya Is and How It Is Made

Oya is a handicraft based on knitting-type techniques, made with tools such as the needle, the shuttle, the hairpin and the crochet hook, with silk, cotton or synthetic thread, and sometimes with sequins and beads added. In needle lace, a loop is formed by throwing the thread over the needle and drawing the thread through that loop; squares, triangles and rectangles arise from the arrangement of these loops. As the knots are tightened the eyes of the work grow smaller, so lace worked with small needles is finer and more densely textured. The appearance produced by leaving a set interval between two loops is called zürefa, and it is the basic operation of needle lace. If the slack of the thread between loops is not the same in every zürefa worked side by side, the stitch is spoiled; when zürefa are worked in rows one above another they take on a lattice appearance and form the basis of the other techniques.

Beyond the zürefa, operations known as piko, trabzan, köprü, boru, fiskil and çirtik are used. The piko is obtained by lengthening one thread within the zürefa; the fiskil is a simple piko worked along the edges and in the centre, and the çirtik is a stepped piko worked along the edges by turning back without breaking the thread. In lace with geometric shapes, the part that joins the zürefa to the main lace and resembles a railing is called the trabzan. The köprü ("bridge"), known in some regions as the kök ("root"), forms the starting section of the lace. That these terms vary from region to region is normal; the same stitch may be called birli in one place and pirinç or mecnun yuvası in another.

In needle lace a single flower or a single leaf counts as a motif in its own right. Motifs prepared one by one are later brought together, and the arrangement that results determines the success of the piece. Decorative compositions fall into four groups: border, centre, corner and scattered. The arrangements in which the space between two roots is filled with motifs are the most striking. It is also considered important for the aesthetics of the work that the colour of the motifs harmonises with the branches and leaves.

One example recorded in Amasya, taken into the cultural inventory from the book that introduces Amasya needle lace, appears under the name "room set" (oda takımı). Here the needle lace motifs were first prepared separately, then placed between pieces of fabric so that the whole was assembled, and an edging of lace was worked around the cover. Made with patterned crinkle fabric and nylon bobbin thread, the piece consists of a mantel-table cover, a side-table set and square covers. The example shows that Amasya lace did not remain on the edge of the headscarf alone but was carried into large household covers in which motifs alternate with fabric. That the materials are crinkle and nylon bobbin thread is, moreover, a concrete record from Amasya of present-day production having moved from the old silk thread to synthetic thread.

Materials and Uses

The traditional material of needle lace is silk. Anatolia's position on the Silk Road and its silk production are regarded as the greatest factor in the development of this art. It is reported that the silkworm was brought from China to the West in the sixth century, that cocoon raising began in Ottoman lands in the sixteenth century, and that until then the silk in use was largely supplied from Iran. In later periods the decline in silk production pushed lacemakers towards cotton and synthetic threads; today in many parts of Anatolia oya is made with synthetic thread. In crochet, shuttle and hairpin lace, sequins and beads are common. Beads may be of glass, porcelain, wood, mother-of-pearl, coral, amber or precious metal; it is also recorded that a bead was regarded not only as an ornament but as an object that protects against the evil eye. In some pieces, modern materials such as antenna wire, around which thread is wound to give the motif its shape, are also used.

Silk and Cocoons in Amasya

Amasya was one of the cities that produced the most silk, the principal material of oya, in the Ottoman period. Hüseyin Hüsameddin, describing the city's vineyards and produce in the Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya) he wrote at the beginning of the twentieth century, states that among the agricultural goods Amasya sold abroad its silkworm houses, mulberries and cocoons were especially famous, and that in recent years the annual cocoon harvest had reached one million kilograms. Research based on archival documents confirms this picture in its broad lines: in Amasya, which in the eighteenth century was chiefly a market for Iranian silk, mulberry orchards and silkworm houses multiplied rapidly in the first half of the nineteenth century, and the city became, after Bursa, one of the most important centres of Ottoman sericulture. After 1864 the pébrine and muscardine diseases devastated the silkworms and the mulberry orchards were uprooted; from 1885 onwards, with the teaching of healthy seed production, output revived. No document has been found confirming the figure of one million kilograms given by Hüsameddin.

In a city producing so much silk it is reasonable to suppose that lacemaking women had no difficulty in finding thread; yet no direct document has been found showing that silk lace was worked from house to house in Amasya, or to what extent cocoons were set aside for local lacemaking. The link drawn between the region's history of sericulture and its lace tradition should be read as an inference. What is certain is that synthetic thread and nylon bobbin thread are used in most of the lace produced in Amasya today.

Needle lace is a widespread handicraft throughout Amasya province. According to the records of the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, it is used above all to edge the yemeni (a printed headscarf), and it has also been developed into lapel flowers, handkerchiefs, scarves and coin purses. Among the other handicrafts of the region are carpet and kilim weaving, the peştamal (bath wrap) and bed sheets woven on whip looms around Merzifon, tin samovars, and the spinning of kırnap, a coarse hemp or goat-hair yarn, in Gümüşhacıköy; within this list, needle lace is a craft that lives in the hands of women. Across Turkey the uses of oya are far wider: they include headscarves, baby face covers, the edges of wrapping cloths, henna gloves, towel edges, curtains, side-table covers, the skirt edge of bed covers and living-room sets. In Amasya homes, too, oya was never confined to the headscarf; it extended from bedding to prayer rugs, from the pieces in the dowry chest to room sets. Alongside needle lace, crochet, bead and shuttle lace are also among the techniques kept alive in the region.

Oya is also classified by tool and by material. By tool, needle, crochet, shuttle and hairpin lace are distinguished; hairpin lace is made by winding thread on a U-shaped hairpin and working it with a crochet hook, and the size of the lace depends on the width of the hairpin. By material, cocoon, wool, wax, bead and sequin lace are counted. In cocoon lace the main motifs are made from cocoons and attached to sections worked with needle or hook, and the work is as laborious as needle lace. In wax lace the motifs are made of coloured wax; because it spoils with heat and frequent handling, there are few varieties of it. Bead and sequin lace are made by adding beads, or fish scales, metal and plastic sequins, to the ends of lace worked with hook and needle.

The Language of Motifs and Colours

What chiefly distinguishes oya is the message it carries. Researchers regard one of the most important features of this art as the way the maker expresses her feelings and thoughts through colour and motif. Studies of oya terminology attribute a signifying value to this language: the colour of a piece, its motif and even the difficulty of working it silently communicate the state of mind of its maker or wearer. Yellow expresses weariness and fatigue, red vitality and love, blue ease and protection from evil, and green desire and hope. Lace worked in various shades of green announces that the new bride is content with her home and husband, while yellow lace is taken as a sign of unhappiness. It is told that a bride who ties on a scarf edged with pepper lace is saying to her mother-in-law and the household, "my husband and I are as bitter as pepper." It is also reported that on the second day of her marriage the bride ties on a scarf worked in shades of purple on a white ground, calling it "ak aydınlık" ("white radiance").

Oya motifs are grouped as plant, geometric, object, symbolic, nature-inspired and figural. The flower motif is usually the main motif of a piece and is seen more often in regions where that flower grows; the leaf is worked either beside the flower or alone, as parsley, mulberry, olive or willow leaf. In object motifs the maker carries into the lace something she values or has seen: an earring, a mirror, a ewer, a basket. In symbolic pieces such as "Kol kola kızlar" (girls arm in arm), "yar yara küstü" (lovers fell out), "saray önü kavgası" (the quarrel before the palace) and "cihan yandı" (the world is ablaze), the shape bears almost no resemblance to its name; the shape is merely a means of expression. The çarkıfelek (wheel of fortune) lace symbolises, in some regions, the separation of women parted from their husbands. The gravestone lace is said to be given by a bride who does not wish ever to make peace with her mother-in-law, though it is also noted that this meaning does not hold in every region where the motif has been recorded.

Names specific to Amasya belong to this vocabulary as well. A needle lace worked with large, widely spaced tulip motifs is called the "Amasya tulip" (Amasya lalesi); researchers note that this name has been found only in the Amasya region, that the Amasya tulip is known as the "lost Turkish tulip," and that it is an endemic species of the region. The tulip is a plant ornament used frequently in other regions too; what sets it apart in Amasya is that the motif has been given the name of a species peculiar to the region. The name "eltiçatlatan" ("sister-in-law-bursting") is used in Amasya and Kütahya for a needle lace made of broad-leaved flower motifs. In Balıkesir the same name is given to a bead lace usually worked in shades of red; there the wish to be noticed is expressed through an abundance of colour and material, whereas in the Amasya example it is expressed through the amount of workmanship and the breadth and showiness of the lace. The idea behind the name is the same in both places: to impress onlookers, the sister-in-law above all, with the beauty of the lace, and to make the labour and display noticed. The Amasya definition is traced, in the studies that compile oya terminology, to Canan Oral's book on Amasya needle lace.

The hyacinth (sümbül) lace is also a motif worked in the regions in which Amasya is counted; it is also found in Ankara, Balıkesir, Çanakkale, Erzincan, Kastamonu, Kilis, Konya, Samsun and Tokat, and can be worked with needle or hook, with or without beads. It is told in the lace tradition that two hyacinths represent husband and wife, that flowers of the same colour signify love and flowers of different colours signify that the spouses do not get along. This signifying value, however, was recorded in Kastamonu; whether it carries the same meaning in other provinces, and therefore in Amasya, has not been established. These names show that oya also carries knowledge of place and surroundings, and that the maker works into the stitch the plant she saw around her and what she did not want to forget.

Dowry Tradition and Women's Labour

Oya is an inseparable part of the dowry tradition. The saying "the girl is in the cradle, the dowry in the chest" describes how girls begin preparing their dowries years in advance, and oya is the visible face of that preparation. Pieces such as bed covers, towel edges, yemeni, handkerchiefs and henna sets come from the hands of the girl and her mother. For this reason oya is also the voice of a bridal dream and of the wish to found a home. Place is described in oya as well; in some pieces the most desired type of house, the "three rooms and a hall," has been turned into a motif, so that the home the maker wishes to live in is worked into the stitch.

Oya is also of economic value. With its rich variety and deep roots, it has provided income, or additional income, to households without a man. In Amasya the number of women attending handicraft courses has grown, and trainees have come to contribute to the family budget by continuing at home the techniques they learned. A local news report from November 2025 relates that women attending courses buy beads, jewellery supplies, ribbons and paint from a single source, and that after learning the craft they make needle lace, towels, yemeni, henna sets and knitwear at home. One trainee said she would decorate the end of a prayer-bead string with needle lace. This example shows that oya has not remained merely a display of the past, and that today too it is turned into gift items and dowry goods.

History of Oya

There is no definite information on when the art of knitting-type lace began. From examples found on the Aegean coast in 1905, views hold that this art predates 2000 BC, and that needle-worked lace passed in the twelfth century from Anatolia to Greece and from there via Italy to Europe. That the word oya has no equivalent in other languages is taken as a sign that the art belongs to Anatolian women; as to its place in history, it is argued that oya merges with lace work in technique and that traces of it can be seen in works of ancient Egypt, Babylon and Assyria going back to 3000 BC. Europe became acquainted with oya in the sixteenth century; the word dentelle entered the dictionary of the French Academy in 1594.

In the Ottoman period, traditional knitted lace and oya received great attention both inside and outside the palace. Apprentices trained in the guilds had to display their skill before a commission to become masters, and in this examination they were expected to knit items such as caps, sweaters and socks while creating motifs of their own. Sources show that products made in the Ottoman period also reached Western countries. As is understood from old examples, needle lace and all hand embroidery in Anatolia lived their golden age in the eighteenth century; after the Tanzimat, interest gradually declined under the effect of imitation born of a misunderstood admiration for the West. In the Republican period too, oya did not receive sufficient attention and has come down to the present through tradition; it is nevertheless recorded that a serious degeneration has occurred in materials and aesthetics. Old, documented examples showing the place of Amasya lace within this general course have not been found in published sources; what is known about the region's lace rests largely on compilations made in the twenty-first century.

Recording and Teaching Oya in Amasya

The principal publication on Amasya needle lace is the book Amasya İğne Oyaları (Amasya Needle Lace) by Canan Oral, published by the Governorate of Amasya. The book is cited with the date 2007 in studies on oya, while one study compiling oya terminology refers to the same work with the date 2010, which suggests that a second edition may exist. The "room set" example in the cultural inventory is also taken from this book. A person of the same name was, in 2013, the president of the Women Entrepreneurs Association in Suluova. Within the project "Developing Women's Employment and Preventing Domestic Violence," run by the Suluova Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundation, a traditional needle lace course was opened at this association, and when the association was visited in July 2013 the work of the women trainees was presented. The sources do not state clearly whether the association's president and the author of the book are the same person.

The most comprehensive academic study of Amasya lace is the master's thesis "Amasya İğne Oyaları ve Halk Eğitim Merkezinin İğne Oyacılığına Katkıları" (Amasya Needle Lace and the Contributions of the Public Education Centre to Needle Lacemaking), prepared by Pelin Kalelio at the Institute of Fine Arts of Süleyman Demirel University in 2014. The thesis sets out to identify the needle lace produced in Amasya from the past to the present and to record its colour, composition, motifs, technique, tools and materials. Its material consists of the trainees producing needle lace at the Amasya Public Education Centre, questionnaires administered to them, photographs of the pieces and information forms. Of the hundred pieces examined, eighty that do not repeat one another were entered in the catalogue together with their information forms. The thesis also deals with the demographic characteristics of the women who make lace, the uses of the lace, its care and storage, the sources lacemakers draw on for their patterns and the socio-economic side of the work. The section explaining the importance of the study states that needle lace production, together with its sales and marketing, had by then been carried on for ten years through the cooperation of the Governorate of Amasya and the Public Education Centre; on this reckoning, the organised system of courses and sales goes back to the mid-2000s.

The scale of the public education courses is shown by another study of Amasya. According to this work, which covers the years 2016 to 2021, in 2018-2019, the period in which the most courses for women were opened across the province, 841 such courses were held, and women made up 22,311, that is sixty per cent, of the 37,009 people attending courses. The field most in demand among women was handicraft technology; under this field, alongside courses in preparing dowry goods, hand-worked suzani, hand-worked Turkish embroidery, crochet and shuttle weaving, there were also courses titled simply "oya." The district with the highest participation relative to its population was Suluova. The researchers also note that master instructors, who are paid by the teaching hour, are reluctant to go to small districts with few trainees, which makes it harder for rural women to reach the courses.

From the Workshop to Distant Markets

The most striking feature of oya in Amasya in recent years is its transformation from a domestic pastime into production that reaches foreign markets. The Traditional Turkish Arts Centre established by the Governorate of Amasya has enabled women to be trained in traditional arts and to sell what they make at home and abroad; needle lace stands first among the arts taught there. In a report published in August 2022, Gülay Akgül, who has taught needle lace in the city for more than ten years, describes this art, which she calls "the dance of thread with needle," as known around the world as "Turkish lace" and used in accessories such as lapel pins, scarves and shawls. According to Akgül, their largest market is Japan, and they have been receiving orders from that country for ten years. She says that they take living flowers as the model for their designs, and that Japanese buyers love this delicacy.

In the same report Sevda Özkan, who combined what she learned in a course she joined five years earlier with her own skill, relates that she promotes her products on social media, sends them within Turkey and abroad, and expands her production as demand grows. These accounts are important for understanding the present form of Amasya lace. The flower that once announced a bride's state of mind on the edge of a yemeni is now sent to another continent as a lapel pin. Taking the pattern from a living flower preserves the essence of the tradition, while the kind of product and its buyer have changed entirely. The courses, the sales points and personal sales channels working together have made oya once again a source of income for women.

Efforts to Keep Oya Alive

Many initiatives at the national level also aim to pass oya on to future generations. A project launched in 2014 is based on a collection of needle lace gathered from various regions over nearly twenty years, and is run by the Adnan Memiş Education, Culture and Arts Foundation. Two books were prepared within the project. One is Nurhan Atasoy's study of the historical dimension of oya; by searching Ottoman archives for estate registers, dowry registers, inheritance-division registers and Islamic court registers, the history of oya has been documented. The other book is by Gönül Paksoy and traces the link running from rock paintings to oya motifs. Both books have also been published in English. The project also has a documentary; in this film, shot in Bursa, Nallıhan, Gönen, Biga, Bergama, Ödemiş, Tire, Muğla, Datça, Tokat and Amasya, the place of oya on special days such as weddings, henna nights and circumcision feasts, and in everyday life, has been recorded. The project aims for oya to be inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage; expanding the catalogue to detailed entries for 2,500 pieces, cooperatives, competitions, a travelling exhibition and a museum are also among the plans.

Academic studies share the same concern. They argue that the decline of oya will make it harder to transmit cultural heritage, and that teaching programmes and seminars should therefore be run in the regions where oya is made. In Amasya part of this recommendation has already been put into practice through the public education courses and the workshops at the centre; cataloguing the pieces worked in the region so that they are not lost is also one of the main reasons given for the thesis written on Amasya. A little girl still learns to hold the needle at her mother's side at an early age; this process, leading from the first clumsy stitches to masterly lace, is itself the knowledge passed from mother to daughter and from grandmother to grandchild.

Chronology

1594: The word dentelle enters the dictionary of the French Academy.

1864: The pébrine and muscardine diseases devastate the silkworms of Amasya; mulberry orchards are uprooted.

1885: With the teaching of healthy seed production, sericulture in Amasya revives.

1905: Examples suggesting that knitting-type lace is very ancient are found on the Aegean coast.

2007: Canan Oral's book Amasya İğne Oyaları is published by the Governorate of Amasya (cited with the date 2010 in one study).

2013: A traditional needle lace course is opened at the Women Entrepreneurs Association in Suluova.

2014: A master's thesis on Amasya needle lace is completed; the Adnan Memiş Foundation launches its oya project.

2018-2019: Of the 37,009 people attending public education courses in Amasya, 22,311 are women; handicrafts is the field most in demand.

2022: It is reported that Japan is the largest market for the needle lace produced at the Traditional Turkish Arts Centre.

2025: In November the local press reports that women who learned needle lace in courses have taken up production at home.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • Gümüş, Deniz; Uray, Gamze (2018). Oya El Sanatı Üzerine Bir İnceleme. Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, 11 (55), 356-369.
  • Erdoğan, Songül (2025). Sanat Terimlerinin Tanımlanmasında Farklı Disiplinlerin Etkisi: Oya Örneği. Disiplinler Arası Dil Araştırmaları Dergisi, 214-232.
  • Kalelio, Pelin (2014). Amasya İğne Oyaları ve Halk Eğitim Merkezinin İğne Oyacılığına Katkıları. Master's thesis, Süleyman Demirel University, Institute of Fine Arts (supervisor Filiz Nurhan Ölmez); SDÜ open access record and thesis abstract. amasya.bel.tr
  • Yapar, Nurdane Ebru; Şentürk, Şener (2022). Halk Eğitim Merkezlerinin Kadınlara Yönelik Kurs Faaliyetleri: Amasya İli Örneği. OKAD (Ondokuz Mayıs University Journal of Women's and Family Studies), 2 (1), 29-50.

Official sources

  • Oral, Canan (2007). Amasya İğne Oyaları. Amasya: Amasya Valiliği Yayınları.
  • Onuk, Taciser (2000). Osmanlı'dan Günümüze Oyalar. Ankara: Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları.

Books

  • Onuk, Taciser (1981). İğne Oyaları Çeşitleri ve İşleme Yöntemleri. Ankara: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları.

Other sources

  • Özbel, Kenan (1945). El Sanatları II: Oya ve Oya Çeşitleri. Ankara.
  • Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, Handicrafts; Turkey Culture Portal, Amasya Cultural Atlas, Needle Lace.
  • Yeni Akit, news report (photo gallery) on the Amasya Traditional Turkish Arts Centre and the Japanese market for needle lace, 16 August 2022. yeniakit.com.tr
  • Sondakika.com, "Vali Eşleri Suluova Kadın Girişimciler Derneği'ni Ziyaret Etti" (AA), 8 July 2013.
  • Objektif Amasya, "Amasya'da Sanatın ve Hobinin İlk Durağı", 28 November 2025.
  • Adnan Memiş Education, Culture and Arts Foundation, Oya Project (SosyalUp, announcement of 9 December 2024).

Online sources