Oya is the three-dimensional needle lace worked along the hem of a Turkish yazma — the 90 by 90 cm printed cotton headscarf. Silk flowers are built stitch by stitch with a single needle until they stand off the cloth like real blossoms, sometimes strung with glass beads.

The flowers are a language. A yellow daffodil says the love is hopeless; a wild rose says the husband works abroad; a chili pepper says the wearer is angry with him. This system keeps that grammar: a plain square of cloth, all ornament pushed to the edge, and every motif carrying a caption that means something.