Traditional Evil Eye Beadmaking

İbrahim Yıldırım

Anatolia's evil eye beadmaking tradition that turns out to be disappearing is now going to live at The Glass Furnace again. During a week, participants are going to learn the production of evil eye beads, which has a history of 3000 years and have the opportunity of making various accessories. At the program firstly traditional kiln that heats up by pine tree wood and equipment are going to be introduced. Participants will see how the glass melts in the tanks of the kiln with a temperature of 900 °C. In this technique, only two iron rods are used. Participants will be taught how to wrap the base of the bead around the thick iron rod and put the eyes on the bead using thin iron rod. Crushing method used for shaping beads is going to be explained. Participants are going to learn basic classic evil eye bead figures with interesting names such as little calf eye, black eye and seven eyes. The ways of coloring the glass that differs to each master will be mentioned as well. During this one-week-workshop, you will enjoy making your own evil eye beads.

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İbrahim Yıldırım

İbrahim Yıldırım was born in ?zmir in 1980. He has been making traditional evil eye beads since 1989. As the third generation evil eye bead master, he still produces and sells his evil eye beads in his studio in İzmir Bead Village (Nazarköy-Kurudere).