Istanbul aka Turkish Delight

This fibre art piece all started because of my trip to Istanbul. Before leaving I knew that I was going to look for some Turkish treasures to bring home for my collection but what I found went much deeper. The shop keepers stories along with Apple Tea was their way in to open your wallet. These are crafted sellers and marvelous story tellers that put my Scottish roots to shame. I enjoyed every minute of that trip & only wish that I could have seen more.

One of the shop keepers sold me beads that were made from camel teeth. I was in that store for quite some time because all I was thinking of was what I would do with them once I got home. That shop keeper sold me many beads and actually talked himself out of selling some of them. In the end we had to split the amount of camel teeth so that he could craft prayer beads...which are very popular in Istanbul.

This shows some of the detail around the camel. The Evil Eye is also very popular in Turkey. It's actually called a Nazar, which is an eye shaped amulet. As many already know, it was created to protect against the Evil Eye. It's believed to contain certain magical properties which would provide good luck or offer protection from evil or harm. I now have a Nazar in my studio window to bring me good luck & I've included them in  this piece.

 Istanbul is also know as The City of Cats. 

Cats are absolutely everywhere and they're very well looked after by everyone. They believe cats are better than rats. 

I would sit happily for hours people watching with a cat on my lap.

The spider in the cave is representative of a story told to me by a local carpet & kilm seller. As the story is told...there were men from Mecca that were out to harm the prophet Muhammad. So Muhammad took shelter in the cave of Thawr. While inside the cave a spider spun a web across the entrance. When the men from Mecca arrived at the cave they believed no one had entered because the spiders web had not been broken. Many traditional carpets have the cave as the main subject. My cave is made with an art cloth technique shown previously in earlier blog posts.

This picture shows my representation of a Sultan Turban Pin that was shown in one of the museums. My actual pictures didn't come out as it was behind glass & I couldn't get a good angle. So I just made my own.

This is just a detail picture of one of the a poppies.

This piece took me a very long time from beginning to end and I'm very glad that's done. Now it's time to clean the studio and hopefully my next project will give me a bead break...but who knows.