Traditional Turkish Hand Crafts formed a rich mosaic by bringing together its genuine values with the cultural heritages of the different civilizations which arose and fell during the thousands of years of history.

Traditional Turkish Crafts can be listed as; carpet making, rug making, sumac, cloth waiving, writing, tile making, ceramic-pottery,embroidery, leather manufacturing, musical instrument making, masonry, coppersmiths, basket making, saddle making, mining, felt making, weaving, wood craft, cart making etc. The raw material of the weaving is provided from the wool, mohair, cotton, bristle and silk.

Weaving
Can be every kind of cloth, plait, carpet, rug, felt which are obtained by spinning thread or connecting the fibers together by other methods.

The weaving is a handicraft, which has been practiced in Anatolia for a long time, it was and is, a way of earning a living in Turkey

The embroideries, which are one of the delicate samples of Turkish handicrafts, are used also as a communication tool with their meaning carried in their decoration. The embroideries made with tools such as crochet needle, needle, shuttle, hairpin and are designed either as a border or motif, are called with different names according to the tool used and technique.

All civilizations have produced works of art having artistic values of their own. During the Ottoman period, jewelry gained importance in parallel to the development of the Empire.

After the periods of the Bronze Age, materials such as copper, gold, silver have been also created by using the cast and wrought technique. The most used material is copper. Techniques such as wrought, scraping, savaklama (engraving in black on silver) have been used. The handicrafts made with copper, as well as the metals such as brass, gold, silver, are kept alive today by using high quality workmanship and various designs. The copper, which is the most widespread metal used today, has continued to be used to make cookware by tin foiling it.

The material used in wood craftsmanship is mostly walnut, apple, pear, cedar, ebony and rose tree. The wooden objects worked by the techniques such as tapping, painting, relief-engraving, cage, coating, burning are still used nowadays.

The usage of the walking stick and stick batons which are made by using these techniques are still used some districts and have lasted hundreds of years The handles of the walking sticks and stick batons are made of materials such as silver, gold, bone and the body parts are made of wood such as rose, cherry, ebony, bamboo, reed etc.

Making musical instruments has continued since ancient times. These instruments are being made by using trees, plants and the skin, bones and horns of the animals. The are grouped as strings, woodwind and percussion instruments.

Another art is glazed tile art. The glazed tile and ceramic art between 14-19^th century has gained word wide fame with its extraordinary creative workmanship.

The most distinctive samples of the glass workmanship obtained from the Anatolian civilizations enlighten the development of the glass history. In the Ottoman Empire period Istanbul became the center of the glass art center. Cesmi-i Bulbul is one of the techniques, which has been able to survive from that period until today.

Glass Eye
First production of the glass as a bead for averting the evil eye was achieved by the craftsmen of Izmir-Gorele village. You will find this glass symbol everywhere in Turkey. It is believed that the evil eye directed at living creatures or objects can be averted by the amulet.

You can find all of the crafts above and many more in the shops and bazaars of Marmaris. Happy shopping!

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