Ornek, a Crimean Tatar ornament
The system of symbols of Crimean Tatar ornament and the knowledge of their meanings, used in embroidery, weaving, pottery, metalwork, wood carving and glass painting. An element of an indigenous people of Ukraine inscribed by UNESCO.
Ornek is not a single technique but a language of signs: a set of symbols and the rules by which they are arranged into narrative compositions. It is used in embroidery, weaving, pottery, engraving, jewellery, wood carving, and glass and wall painting. Bearers of the tradition understand the meanings of the symbols and often commission a composition with a particular message.
Geometric ornament prevails in weaving and floral ornament in most other crafts. The most common signs are plants and trees standing for people of different sex and age; there are about thirty-five symbols in all. A rose, for example, signifies a married woman, a tulip a young man, and a tulip within a rose the love or union of a man and a woman. The knowledge is passed on in families and communities, in embroidery classes and at universities.
Crimean Tatar decorative art, of which ornek is part, includes embroidery (among it double-sided satin stitch and gold work), patterned weaving, metalwork and filigree, stone carving, ceramics and felt; scholars describe ornament as its most developed component.
«Ornek, a Crimean Tatar ornament and knowledge about it» was entered on Ukraine's National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2018 (in the section representing the culture of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine) and inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021. Ornek is not a variety of Ukrainian embroidery or of Petrykivka painting: it is an independent tradition of the Crimean Tatar people.
