Fool's Spring

We had about a week of 20 degrees Celsius, which is normal here, actually, we had a very wet and cold Winter for our standards, we kind of missed the Sun which is very unusual here!
As a result daisies popped up everywhere, I love the wildflowers around here. Funny enough we learned to make daisies in our marbled paper course as well.

I will have to perfect them this week, I have the flower part under control, the stems and leaves I still need to work on.

Today it is pretty cold again but the daisies are still in the mountains hanging on, in hope for warmer days :)

I found a video on Youtube, so you get a bit of a better idea how it is done.

Marbling Paper

Like almost every Winter, I've been attending some courses that are arranged by the Ministry of Education and are free of charge (except for the materials that you buy yourself). This Winter I'm continuing my two-year Jewelry course for its second and final year. More interestingly, I have been attending a Marbling Paper course, or as they call it in Turkish, Ebru Sanatı.

Something that is not done much anymore in Europe, but is in Turkey a traditional form of art. While in Europe it was a popular thing to use for handbound books (which in itself has almost disappeared), here there are many motives and techniques and are meant for framing.

I missed a few weeks while we were away but I caught up pretty quickly. It is once a week but takes the entire day as it does take time to settle as you need a lot of stuff for it.

It involves art and science as each layer of paint must be prepared differently so that it can push aside the previous layer.

You also can not work hours on it and need to be pretty swift and transfer your piece on paper right away. The water is of course not only water but contains a special seaweed which gives the water a consistency strong enough to let the paint stay on top instead of sinking.

There are many techniques to marble and create motives. Our course is just a few months so won't be enough to learn all but it is a great start.

The brushes are also traditional and are made of rose branches and horse hair.

"A day without learning is a day wasted. There is so much to learn and so little time to learn it."

— from Wisdom from World Religions by Sir John Templeton

Old Traditions

Here in our town we have lots of free courses. Mostly attended by women, here is one hosted by the chamber of commerce on hand knotted kilims and tapestries.

The huge looms, the yarns and wool are all given to the students so that they can make these pieces without any costs.

It is quite funny how much money is spent on some stuff here, but I do like these courses, there is also one to paint porcelain, silver jewelry and more. It is meant for woman to be able to make some money or create job opportunities. These courses are either hosted by the chamber of commerce or the ministry of education. I have been to many of these kind of courses, they are fun and free and each course gives something new. Mum and I actually first started learning jewelry making in one of these courses. But then continued further with time, practice and other courses and tutorials.

Row by row knot by knot these pieces take weeks, not my cup of tea these would drive me crazy :)

Each region has its own style, patterns and methods to create tapestries.

Would you join this course if it was in your town?

Exhibition

As I have mentioned several times before, this Winter we have attended a special silver course. These courses are arranged and paid for by a government under the name of Public Education. The courses are usually attended by women, rarely men, mostly as these courses are often attended by housewives, or retired people, anyway often people who do not have a regular job as the course are at day time. We do not fall in any of the categories, especially NOT the housewife lol :) But we had great fun and learned some special techniques which we will be able to use in our new jewelry pieces.

After 5 months, 3 days a week our course is coming to an end, next week will be our final week, this week however all the different courses had their exhibition to showcase what we all have made in the past months. There was our Silver jewelry pieces, oil paintings, marbled paper art, ceramics, hand painted wooden objects, beaded jewelry, wearable and home textile and embroidery.

Everyone was also welcome to sell their pieces for some extra income, most ladies were pleased with what they earned in the two days, the sale feel like a little reward after all the months of hard work :)

Some of our pieces are already in our shop in the Silver category and many more will be listed, we are planning to explore more of these techniques this Summer.

Silence for a Beautiful Reason

We have been thoroughly neglecting our blog, we are very sorry for our silence! But our silence has some beautiful reasons, well at least the results are beautiful :)
As you may know by now we are going to a special silver course here in town which has been keeping us very busy!

3 days a week is quite a commitment but we enjoy it very much. Beside learning new techniques we also made some lovely friends in our group and we are having lots of fun together. I also finish off work for others as no one else in the group knows how to solder silver, which brigs a lot of extra work, hence our silence again.

I decided to give this set a separate blog post mainly as it is very special and I wanted to give it a nice spot light :)

The teacher tells us that the technique has its origin in the Caucasus, where till World War I, was used to make body armor. You can use a bracelet to pull a car, it is that strong.
Trebizond wire weaving is a local art from the northern Turkish city Trabzon.

Silver Weaving

We just begun a new, very exciting class: silver weaving.

This kind of work is known as Trabzon (Trebizond) work and is done generally in 22kr gold. We begin with copper wire and than when the time is ripe, will continue with silver wire.

The teacher tells us that the technique has its origin in the Caucasus, where till World War I, was used to make body armor. You can use a bracelet to pull a car, so strong is it.

Here is a very nice YouTube film where the real thing (in gold) is shown. It is in Turkish,  but it is lovely and easy to follow. About six thousand women in Trabzon work in their homes making this kind of weaving or braiding.

The tools couldn't be simpler. A special pair of hand made tweezers, a pin or needle, and a tooth pick.

It is not easy to do, but we feel privileged to have access to such an special art form.

Besides the Trabzon work, we will learn many other types of silver braiding, used to make bezels, chains, and many other things.

All the braiding that you see in this jewelry is hand made.

For this work you use only a small vice and your hands.

The teacher is a lovely and competent woman and it is great fun.

Here you see the beginning of two different types of braids, with six and seven wires.