How I Travelled to Turkey Without Leaving Sydney

Destination: Turkey

I’m stunned and pleasantly surprised that it didn’t take me two flights, a long layover and a total travel time of almost 24 hours to experience a slice of the magic of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. After being trapped inside for the better part of the past two years, I was craving a change of scenery and a new adventure even more so than usual.

My destination is Turkey but the address I punch into the navigator is 191 William Street, Darlinghurst. It’s here that I find Art Masterclass, a boutique art studio that specialises in traditional Turkish crafts like mosaic lamp making.

As I step inside, every corner is illuminated with a kaleidoscope of coloured lamps, each intricately handmade and honouring an ancient practice that dates back over six thousand years. Turkish covers of pop songs fill my ears and I’m greeted by a friendly group of spirited makers who are eager to share their culture with me.

The space exudes the same warmth as a homestay overseas – that feeling of utter relief when you’ve travelled to more places than you can remember and all you’re craving is the comfort of home. Each table is surrounded by four chairs, arranged to encourage conversation and story-telling between strangers.

Small ceramic dishes of glass tiles and beads are clustered in the centre, glistening with every shade of blue, orange, red, yellow, green, pink and purple. Everyone is handed a sheet of paper filled with different geometric patterns to help spark our inspiration for the lamp's design. These were just here for guidance and Donay encourages everyone to make their own pattern if they desire. Besides, there are no mistakes in this craft.

As the Turkish mosaic making begins, I notice my curiosity start to peak. I begin to ask, “What’s the meaning of the different coloured and shaped tiles?” As soon as I’m playing with a multitude of colour combinations and patterns, I’m drawn to learning more about its cultural significance and the thousands of hands that have done exactly what I’m doing before.

Turkish mosaic lamps have long been a treasure in the East. Made from the fragments of traditional Turkish glass makers, these glass tiles or chips were repurposed by ancient craftspeople into “eternal paintings”. Unlike paintings, which were harder to preserve, these mosaics were made up of coloured pieces of glass fitted to last forever. And though thousands of years have passed, the process still remains almost entirely handmade.

Seyf from Art Masterclass explains to me, “You won’t be able to find two lamps that are exactly the same because that’s what traditionally made them unique. Every single one was made by a different person, with a different story, in a different time.”

In Turkish culture, these mosaic lamps are more than just light ornaments and are actually used to set the mood in living rooms, restaurants and temples across the country. Red, orange and yellow-coloured tiles emanate warmth whereas blue and purple-coloured lamps release calmer, cooler tones.

Now that I’ve found my rhythm mosaicing, Donay brings around a tray of crimson-coloured black Turkish tea served in a traditional ‘ince belli’ (slim-waisted) glass with homemade shortbread cookies to accompany. It’s easy to forget that a glass wall is all that separates me from Sydney’s busy William Street.

I move on from glueing my tiles to sprinkling an array of beads in between my blue curved design. This process takes time but that only heightens my appreciation for this craft. There’s something comforting about the slowness of it all, the way that this craft has been unchanged by centuries of modernisation.

“To bring it back alive in a way that connects to people… is quite beautiful,” says Seyf.

For Art Masterclass, it’s all about showing “everyone that no matter how imperfect these mosaic tiles are by themselves, once they're together, they become an amazing, perfect artwork,” Seyf explains.

Three hours was enough time to justify sentimental goodbyes with the makers at Art Masterclass. They hadn’t just taught me a creative new skill but also opened my eyes to the beauty of Turkish culture through crafting together and sharing a slice of their story too. I left with my own rainbow-coloured mosaic lamp, a handmade souvenir of sorts and a reminder of my first ‘trip’ to the Middle East.

Now that I’ve ticked Turkey off my bucket list, I ask myself, “where to next?”. Should I visit Japan in Glebe with an Ikebana arranging class? Get a taste of authentic Italian cuisine in Surry Hills? Or uncover the secrets of making pastel-coloured Korean Ggot Tteok in Ultimo? Thankfully distance is no longer a barrier.

References:

1) History and Technology of Creating Famous Turkish Mosaic Lamps, Art Masterclass

2) Let’s Explore Turkey’s Many Mosaics, Turkish Museums

3) The Careful Crafting of Turkish Mosaic Lamps and How it’s Made Cultural History, Paykoc Imports