WAVE OF GRAY

ARZU-KEŞ micro mosaics

The Romans and Byzantine mosaics from Anatolia has always fascinated me.

It's hard not to be impressed by the images created by cutting and combining small pieces of glass or marble in different colors. It's incredible to think that, thousands of years ago, people made vast spanes floor and wall mosaics without any tools or technology. Even on the domes of churches, I can't help but wonder what kind of motivation, faith and patience these people had. Early in my career I was inspired by these traditions.

I found out that in Italy they used Murano glass and semi-precious stones.

But I had ceramic clay in my workshop, so I started experimenting and discovered that using micro-mosaics with ceramics inside jewellery.

Each micro mosaic jewel I make is one of a kind and is a journey of experimentation, learning and patience. I remember reading a book in which I came across the word

"ARZU-KEŞ".  "Arzu-Keş" is explained in Persian as someone who is eager, enthusiastic and passionate. When I  learned the meaning, I immediately thought of making micro mosaics.

Ceramic micro mosaics require a lot of patience. Micro mosaics I found time for in my busy and stressful work schedule were almost like meditation for me.

COLOURING: The first thing I did was colour the clay with pigments.

PLATE MAKING: I had to roll out these coloured clays very flat with a thickness of 1 mm. I found a very thin glass tube which I started to use as a rolling pin.

CUTTING: I had to cut these coloured clay plates of the same thickness into 1 mm cubes. When I work with such a small piece, the clay dries out really quickly when I touch it with my hand, so I had to make the cutting process quick and efficent. I started to cut with surgical scalpels.

FIRING: I fired these tiny pieces twice in the klin.

PLACING: Finally, I chose the smoothest cube piece, placed it into the jewellery I designed and modelled, and fixed it there...

It migth sound easy but it took me years of experimenting than finally  I managed to make micro mosaic jewellery designs using five different  shade of the same color.