For a number of years I have wanted to learn more about Oya laces. Oya lace is a form of needle lace found in Turkey and other countries of the eastern Mediterranean area. Oya is particularly used for flowers which embellish women's head scarves. Just like the Victorian lady had a secret language of flowers, daisies for friendship, iris for inspiration, lavender for happiness, the Oya lacers have a secret code also. If the head scarf has red peppers, it means the marital relationship is hot and spicy. Little dangling burdock flowers were a complaint against one's mother-in-law while small meadow flowers were a sign of happiness.

As we see from the cover of Ms. Kou's book, she has an interest in oya also. She has taken a number of basic tatting designs and embellished them with oya techniques. But please note, most of the tatting is done by "wrapping" (as in needle tatting style) the thread around the core instead of actually manipulating the thread with a flip to make the stitch. I caution the new or beginning tatter to learn standard shuttle tatting before attempting these wrapped tatting patterns.







Beaded tatted white flowers with multi color needle weaving embellishment.







Back cover showing 3-dimensional tatting with oya style flowers.

This sample diagram shows the white flower from the cover. The double stitch count is noted on it and the black and white stars mark the start and stop points. This is familiar to us from regular tatting patterns. On other patterns you will note arrows indicating the order of work which is traveling from right to left because of the wrapped tatting method. (Normally tatting goes from left to right. Even notations about closing rings may be reversed so take your time to study the pattern before you start one.)

This sample shows but one petal of a blossom. A wrapped ring is begun in white thread. The pink thread is introduced and the pink shuttle passes over and under the white thread building up a web. When the length desired is reach, the other white thread continues to wrap the ring with picots in white. Three shuttles are required to create this effect.



Intrigued? I am!



Note: I acquired this book for my personal tatting reference library. G.Seitz