Housewives bring back historic handmade toys

The result of a cooperative effort between the Turkish Work Association, or İŞKUR, and the European Union, a new project has been launched to create work opportunities for women and transform a neighborhood by recreating Istanbul’s historic toys.

Titled the New Opportunities Project, it aims to bring back Eyüp toys, which have a 300-year history at least, by teaching housewives the art of toy making.

The vice chairman of the project, Dr. Tosun Yalçınkaya, said the idea came about after the History Foundation conducted research on games and toys in history. "We learned that Istanbul’s Eyüp district was famous for its artisans who used to design and produce toys," Yalçınkaya said.

Beyond providing valuable job opportunities for these women, the long forgotten historical Eyüp toys will be revived.

Through the New Opportunities Program in 2005, six volunteers were educated for a month to be lecturers and after that period 57 unemployed women were taught how to make Eyüp toys and were educated in marketing products. The education period continued for three months. In the end, the toy makers displayed their work at an exhibition opened in Darphane.

Yalçınkaya said: "For those who want to make the toys, we published a book showing how to put the pieces together and design them.

Eyüp Municipality that supports the project supplied part of the Eyüp Sultan Mehterhanesi building as a workshop. Once the toy making was completed, the municipality allocated one shop in the Toy Makers Market and one in Pier Loti, located in the historic Sultanahmet district. Those who were educated to become toy makers, supported by Fener-Balat Culture and Development Foundation and Fener and Balat Districts Rehabilitation Program, established the Historic Eyüp Toys Women Culture Management Cooperation.

Chairman of the supervisory board of the cooperation, Gönül Tütün, said they already produced 19 out of 28 Eyüp toys and they were continuing production at the workshop on weekdays. "People who are familiar with these toys have come to help us by describing what they looked like, but we are not happy with the sales, they are struggling to compete with Chinese made toys," said Tütün.

Eyüp toy business
Noting that production of Eyüp toys came to an end in 1950, she added, since then nobody had produced these toys or kept a workshop open. "We did not promote the workshop enough, so that is why our sales are not as we want them to be. Because we cannot boost sales, we cannot hire any more members for the cooperation," Tütün said. "Eyüp toys are not really attractive for today’s children. There are huge differences between 18th century children and today’s children. The toys we produce mostly take adults back to their childhood."

However, the Historic Eyüp Toys Women Culture Management Cooperation want children to learn about traditional toys. A couple of primary schools have already organized activities in the workshop to introduce kids to the historic toys.

Eyüp used to be a center for toy makers until the end of 18th century. But when plastic and similar materials became prominent instead of using natural materials, Eyüp toys came to an end. Young children would often be taken to Eyüp after they were circumcised and were allowed to choose whatever toy they wanted. The toys would even be exported to Anatolia.

The first toys in Eyüp were produced by Dökmeci Hasan Ağa. He settled in Istanbul after finishing his military service during the time of Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II. The craft was then passed on to Darbukacı Halil Efendi and Küçük İsmail Efendi.