Eskişehir Meerschaum Museum ( tr, Lületaşı Müzesi) is a handicraft museum in

Odunpazarı Odunpazarı (literally "firewood market" in Turkish) is a historic district of Eskişehir Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. Odunpazarı is one of the central districts of Eskişehir along with the district of Tepebaşı. Histori ...

district of

Eskişehir Eskişehir ( , ; from "old" and "city") is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 898,369 with a metropolitan population of 797,708. The city is located on the banks of the ...

, Turkey, exhibiting various items handmade of

sepiolite Sepiolite, also known in English by the German name meerschaum ( , ; ; meaning "sea foam"), is a soft white clay mineral, often used to make tobacco pipes (known as meerschaum pipes). A complex magnesium silicate, a typical chemical formula f ...

(Meerschaum). Sepiolite or Meerschaum is a soft white clay mineral, which is mainly used to handicraft

tobacco pipe A tobacco pipe, often called simply a pipe, is a device specifically made to smoke tobacco. It comprises a chamber (the bowl) for the tobacco from which a thin hollow stem (shank) emerges, ending in a mouthpiece. Pipes can range from very simp ...

s called

Meerschaum pipe A meerschaum pipe is a smoking pipe made from the mineral sepiolite, also known as meerschaum. Meerschaum (, German for "sea foam") is sometimes found floating on the Black Sea and is rather suggestive of sea foam (hence the German origin of th ...

s. The opaque and off-white, grey or cream colored mineral is soft when extracted. However, it hardens on exposure to solar heat or when dried in a warm place. This feature allows it to give a permanent shape after carving it at soft state. Meerschaum deposits are found in Eskişehir region, generally at first rank in the world, in depths up to . The exhibited items of the museum were collected by Eskişehir Governorship during the International Meerschaum Festival, Meerschaum handicraft competitions and exhibits held in Eskişehir since 1998. Around 400 items handmade by 60 artisans were left to Odunpazarı Municipality. The museum was established by Odunpazarı Municipality inside the Kurşunlu Complex at Odunpazarı as the world's only in its kind in 2008.

References

Museums in Eskişehir Tourist attractions in Eskişehir Province Odunpazarı Museums established in 2008 2008 establishments in Turkey Turkish handicrafts {{Turkey-museum-stub