It is limited to tell about the origin of Turkish fabrics. The first samples of Turkish weaving art has bright colors and rich ornaments. We can see the samples at the pictures of the Buddhist caves in Eastern Turkestan from 5^th century A.D. A sample belonged to Anatolian Seljuk Turks is a fabric with a twin lion figure and medallion which has the written name of Aleaddin Keykubat in Lyon Museum. Some travelers such as Ibni Battuta and Marco Polo mention about Seljuk’s fabrics highly. Also, Turkish masters had used fabric patterns in tiles with miniature figures in detailed.

Ottoman Fabrics

We can see the improvement of Ottoman fabrics from collections of Topkapi Palace and Mevlana Museums. Because, keeping minimum one of Ottoman Sultan’s caftans was a tradition. Manufacturers were under the close supervision and organization,. Therefore, Ottoman fabrics had reached to the highest quality. Turkish fabric technique had shown improvement in two sections;  as the fabrics which had been woven in public and others which had been woven in palace looms. Hand loomed fabrics still can be seen in Grand Bazaar. Grand Bazaar has become quite touristic place with nearly 4500 stores. But, back streets of Grand Bazaar are still traditional and it is best place to find finest fabrics.

One of them is Ikat fabrics. Ottomans had used this special Ikad fabrics especially for Kaftans.  Ikat probably carries the character of different cultures independently. It might be one of the oldest forms of central Asian textile decoration where the Turks had migrated from. Its weaving styles vary widely. Lots of design motives must have ethnic, ritual or specific meaning or have been developed for export trading. Traditionally, Ikat have been symbols of status, wealth, power and prestige in Turkish culture. Also each pattern with flowers animals has the meaning which explains story life of women.

The post Turkish Fabrics appeared first on Tour Guide Zerrin.

Calligraphy word which means line or a line of writing in Arabic language. Artists introduce calligraphy as a meaning of beautiful hand writing.  Calligraphy is beautiful writing art and we call writers as calligraphers. It is quite special art and really good idea to buy as a souvenir. There are many master artists in Grand Bazaar. It is worth to see very beautiful pieces there.  Especially I saw one store. The artist was writing on dried dieffenbachia  leaves.

Kinds of Calligraphy

It has various kinds such as Kufic, Thuluth, Naskh, Absolute, Reyhani, Tevki (Sultan’s sign), Icaze, Tafsir, Divani (Official letter of royalty). Seljuks and Ottomans had used in many kinds of Arts and handcrafts. Like carpet weaving, drapery, leatherworking, binding, books, ornamenting, porcelain making, amber objects making, ink making, furniture making.

Value parted with writing involved to accentuate the Calligraphy in Islamic Culture. Especially, It had improved very well in the Ottoman culture and risen to esthetic level. Fairly, it replaced with the paintings in western pictorial art.

Ottoman Royalty had taken cared of master calligraphers well. It was a wealthy hand writting art and very expensive. Actually, Buying a  frame of calligraphy is not cheap. But it is very beautiful to decorate the wall with this special hand writing. ottoman artists had used this beautiful hand writing in various places. They used on boards, daily used goods such as carpet borders, boxes, vases, plates, mosques etc

Calligraphy is not a cursory writing. Each writing type has own specialties and rules. Along the history, famous calligraphers created writing rules time by time and specified them. The various writing types specified by their specialties like being the letters capital or small, style, gaps, adjoining some letters to each others, using some dictations.

The post Calligraphy appeared first on Tour Guide Zerrin.

It is a huge manufacturing sector which comes from centuries with its factories, confection workshops, leather tanning complexes in many cities and sites of Turkey.

Exporting leather products is the biggest sub-sector with nearly 55% margin. In 2005, 582 million$ of 1.050 billion$ exporting was belong to leather and fur clothing sector. Turkey has proved itself to the world marketing with its quality in leather confection field. Turkish leather and clothing sector mainly heads to these biggest markets in the world: Russia with 22.4%, Germany with 21.7%, France with 13.1%, the USA with 8.7% and Spain with 5.1%. It is  oldest culture of Turks. over 3 thousand years, Turks have been the masters of tanning leathers. And then, Turkish leather have become one of the biggest sector in the market.

Turkey is one of the best retailers in the world. and many famous brands work with these leather companies for tanning, confection and workshops.

The advantages of Turkish Leather and Fur Clothing sector in international competition:

–          Inclination to exporting and having the good experience

–          Fast and serial production-delivery service on order and flexibility in production

–          The quality and variety of raw material

–          Having improved ability of fashion design

–          Experience and quality in fur production

The post Turkish Leather appeared first on Tour Guide Zerrin.

Iznik Tiles art is a Turkish Handcraft which has not got old and worn off from old centuries to today. Masters start with mixing quartz with little amount of clay to obtain the material of piece. Amount of quartz in used as a material shows the quality of Iznik tiles.

During Ottoman period, They had made a kind of hand made art by using quartz instead of clay. Quartz is a semi-precious stone and takes all negative energy away. So, They had used it on walls, decoration kitchen ware. Seljuks and Ottomans had used this art at the palaces, mosques since the beginning of period. It brings the esthetic to the building. Therefore, seen from this aspect, Iznik Tiles to use is healthy and soothes the person. It is an art which enlivens the people with its colors and various patterns. It brings in both eye pleasure and strength.

It absorbs stress

Raw material of Iznik Tiles is not earth. Quartz has been used like porcelain plates. It is a strong and semi-precious mine which Ottomans had called “Necef (rock crystal)”. Ottomans used to make praying beads and jewelry with it, too. A specialty of quartz is the impressing the people in positive way. Draw specialty of this semi-precious mine is desirable to touch the Iznik Tile. Iznik Tile absorbs stress from the people.

Masters has used hand free technique in painting on pieces. Blue from boron, green from copper, red from iron have been prepared. After giving the shape of piece, they fire it in over 900°C. And then, they paint. After painting, they glaze it and fire again over 1300°C.  Painting on the pieces is a hand free technique. After glazing and firing piece, it shows all the beauty of itself.

Making these handcraft tiles needs a hard work and long time. Because of that, 80% of tile cost is elbow grease. And then, energy affects the cost. So, a square meter of Iznik Tiles is between 1000 and 4000USD.

The post Quartz Iznik Tiles appeared first on Tour Guide Zerrin.

Strict symmetry and balance is another signature of Ottoman-influenced designs. Often mirroring the natural geometry of the gemstones used in jewelry.

Designers are looking back to that era for inspiration. They say “We are looking for modern design with a sense of our cultural history. These kinds of lines do exist, where companies are using cultural ties to build a new collection. Turkish Design represents as “Modern design with a sense of cultural history” in the World Gold Council in Turkey.

Spooner Diamond in Topkapi Palace

Turkish Jewelry and the first largest diamond of its kind in the world is in Topkapi Palace Museum, too. Turkish people calls this piece as Spoon maker’s Diamond (Turkish: Kasikci Elmasi). This piece is 86 carats (17gr) pear-shaped diamond. It is  the pride of the Imperial Treasury. The treasury of Topkapi Palace has been quite famous in all over the world. Especially this biggest diamond of the world and Topkapi Dagger are the most famous ones. Even a movie called Topkapi was filmed in 1964 by US film makers.

There is literally a plethora of good jewelry shops in the Grand Bazaar, Istanbul. The price-quality ratio is great. The selection of models incredibly vast and the craftsmanship frequently excellent. Even one of Turkish Jeweler Sevan Bicakci have become best jeweler of the world with his pieces.

Since you plan on purchasing high value goods, I would advise you to look a little in advance into the ground rules of oriental negotiation though.

Additionally, this will not be the Tiffany or Harrods experience. There are cultural differences that you might want to be aware of, in order to get the best deal and have a pleasant shopping experience. But also, buyers sould not forget the respect to piece while negotiating. Because each piece is hand made and takes days and days to complete.

The post Jewelry appeared first on Tour Guide Zerrin.