Crimean Tatar embroidery, and family memories

Earlier this month I visited a Crimean Tatar school in Sari Bash, a small village of about 1,000 people in north-central Crimea.  My Crimean Tatar teacher had taken me to the village with her family, as her husband grew up there.  As they hadn't had a chance to visit the village in a while, everyone was quite glad to see them.  This was quite lucky for me - after the school visit we were all invited to dinner at the home of one of the school's senior teachers.  

After dinner, the teacher showed me her collection of family heirlooms- Korans, weavings and traditional embroidery.  They were so beautiful and precious, and it is still difficult to think about the long life of these items - she told me that they had belonged to her grandmother and possibly her great-grandmother.  While I didn't ask her, I imagine that these were among the few things her family took with them on the day they were deported in 1944.  Almost half of the population did not survive the deportation, but these items travelled to Central Asia and back again.  The family encouraged me to take pictures, and said they wanted me to share these relics of Crimean Tatar culture with my friends and family in America.  And of course I am honored to share them with you.  If you email me, I can send you a few more.

Traditional Crimean Tatar embroidery

From left to right - the family's Koran, a small prayer pouch, a newer Koran brought from Turkey, a second prayer pouch, a traditional pouch for tobacco.

I wish I had taken more pictures to show the detail of the gold stitching of the pouches and the designs of the embroidery.  

If you'd like to see more, The International Committee for Crimea, an American Crimean Tatar diaspora group, recently posted a beautiful collection of embroidery on Flickr, which can be found here.  

Photo from "A Study in Crimean Tatar Embroidery:  The Asiye-Zeynep Collection"

Aside from the unique designs and colors, Crimean Tatar embroidery is well-known for being double-sided.  Yes, those meticulous designs are just as beautiful on either side.

After the visit, I sent some of these pictures to a few friends and family members, along with some thoughts I had that day.  It was quite moving to see such family heirlooms, and I doubted if anything of the sort had survived in my family.   My grandfather (DeLuca) responded:

As to the handcraft you show in the pictures, they reminded me of my mother. When I was a kid we would sit in the darken living room and listen the radio. My mother would knit and crochet doilies, bed spreads, sweaters, socks. I recall asking her why and how did she manage to do them in the dark, only with an occasional turning on of the light?

She told me when she was a young girl back in  Italy on the farm, at night, only with the light of the fireplace, she, her sisters and her mother would all knit or crochet by the fireplace. 

She had a chest full of bedspreads plus other handicrafts. I just asked your grandmother if there are any bedspreads around. She doesn't think so but said there are some bureau scarfs.

I had notice in some of your earlier photos, the lace work and scarfs. Brought back memories of my youth.

My grandmother then found these crocheted works he was writing about, and sent me a picture:

I look forward to telling the family in Sari Bash that by learning about their family heirlooms, I also learned a bit more about my own.