What does the evil eye (nazar) mean in Turkish jewellery?

Short answer: the nazar is an eye-shaped motif, usually blue and white, worn or hung to turn away an envious look. It is one of the oldest motifs still in daily use in Turkey, and today it is worn as often for its look and its link to home as for belief in it.

Where the motif comes from

The idea that a jealous glance can bring bad luck is far older than Turkey and appears around the whole Mediterranean and the Middle East. The blue glass bead form most people recognise is made by hand in glass furnaces in western Turkey, where the colour comes from the metal oxides in the glass rather than from paint. The motif travelled from glass onto metal, which is how it reached rings, pendants and bracelets.

Why it is blue

Blue glass was the material at hand in the region's earliest furnaces, and blue stayed the colour of the motif even as it moved into silver and stone. In jewellery the eye is usually built from concentric rings — dark blue outside, white, light blue, then a dark centre — because that pattern reads as an eye from a distance, which is the whole point of it.

How it is worn in Turkey

It is not reserved for special occasions. A nazar is pinned to a baby's blanket, hung by a front door, kept in a car, tied into a shop's first takings of the day. On jewellery it is usually small: a pendant on a short chain, a single eye set into a ring, or a bead strung on a bracelet. Nobody treats it as a statement piece — it is meant to be seen but not announced.

What we make

Our nazar pieces are cut and finished by hand in 925 sterling silver on the bench in our Istanbul workshop, like everything else we make. The eye is set rather than printed, so the design will not wear off the surface. You can see what is currently made in the evil eye collection.

Caring for it

Silver darkens over time; that is the metal reacting with the air, not damage. A soft cloth brings the shine back. If your piece has a glass or stone eye, keep it away from knocks on hard surfaces — glass chips where silver only scratches. There is more on this in our guide to cleaning a silver ring at home.

Pieces from our collection related to this guide