Ayşegül Irmak, a self-made craftswoman from central Turkey's Yozgat province, makes misbaha or tasbih – prayer beads used by Muslims – according to her customers' requests, including filling the beads with hair strands, dried flower petals, photographs and soil from the graves of loved ones.
Through her business, Irmak also contributes to her family income.
Irmak, 30, who lives in the Sorgun district of Yozgat, was impressed by a video she watched on social media about a woman making prayer beads from strands of hair.
She then made her first prayer beads by placing her husband's hair strands in the beads and shared it on social media around three months ago. She soon started receiving orders and turned a room in her house into a workshop.
"I posted the prayer beads I made on social media and it attracted a lot of attention. There are no similar items in Sorgun and people who saw it started to order from me. Later, I started to design key chains, necklaces, bracelets. Apart from that, I placed a photograph inside the tasbih beads, and it attracted a lot of attention too."
Irmak told Anadolu Agency (AA) that she graduated from Sorgun Girls' Vocational High School Child Development and Education Department and could not start her university education due to financial difficulties.
Irmak said she is satisfied with the interest of her customers.
"My customers usually bring photos of their spouses, fiancees, children, the hair of their parent or people they love. For instance, a woman brought hair of her son, who is being treated in intensive care, to make the rosary," she explained.
She said that someone even bought the soil from the grave of a loved one to be placed into the prayer beads. However, people usually bring dried petals of the flower that their significant other or partner gave as a gift, which Irmak places inside rosary beads or in key chains.
Irmak contributes to her family's budget by making rosaries and she wants to expand her business by opening a workplace and teaching this profession to other housewives.
