HESAP WORKS

Embroidery applied with this technique has been used on such objects as girth (with both surfaces used), towel, bath set, cover and napkin (peşkir).  

Fabrics designated for Hesap works must be of sufficient thinness to distinguish weft and warp yarns in the form of bezayağı weaving (warps and wefts looped and tightened equally).

Linen, cotton, woollen and silken fabrics woven by hand in a regular and loose manner are preferred for this embroidery and purl and silver wire (wire purl) metal threads are utilized in addition to silken, cotton, woollen, mat and softly twisted yarns. 

Motifs embroidered as Hesap work are generally accentuated by frames with silver wire, purl or dark-coloured yarns. 

Some of the techniques used in Hesap work are given below. Except for mürver (elderberry) and tel kirma (broken-wire embroidery), all of these techniques result in a fabric embroidered in exactly the same manner on both sides.

-  Plain Hesap Work; This is the simplest technique of embroidery, also referred to as plain needle. 

-  Diagonal Hesap Work:  This closely resembles the plain needle technique.

-  Muşabak: This technique provides for a hole in the middle of the embroidery. In such embroidery techniques as muşabak and mürver, the niches on the surface of the fabric are obtained by collecting, and not pulling, the yarns.

-  Mürver: This is a caged type of embroidery like muşabak and based on the counting principle.  

-  Pesent: This is the most commonly used technique in Turkish embroidery, applied by counting the number of weft and warp yarns. In this technique, yarns of different colours or twisted yarns are used.  

- Susma: By leaving a wire in the middle, patterns with only one yarn line between yarns are created in this technique. 

- Kesme: This is a technique where a certain amount of wefts and warps of the fabric are pulled off. This technique is more applied to borders. 

- Civankaşi: This technique is used to fill in patterns or create bordering veins and make patterns in Antep works. The embroidery is applied with suitable colours, shades of one colour or purl.  

- Broken-Wire Embroidery (Bartın Work): This embroidery technique is different from others in terms of technique and material. The fabric is stretched on a hoop. The name of the technique comes from the manner in which the wire is broken without using any scissors. Processed mostly with golden and silver wires, this technique is also referred to as ‘Bartin work’. Copper wire was also utilized in the 16th and 17th Centuries. A flattened silver needle with a special cap is used for the process. 

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