Pioneers of Advanced Handmade Mediterranean Gourd Lamps

Usually classified under gourd art; gourd lamps or gourd lights are more than just lamps that give out fractal reflections to the walls. Today I want to talk about one distinctive characteristic of these colorful, positive, organic things. This article goes to the American, Canadian and European shop owners and to those who has something to show to potential customers who walk by. Gourd lamps are made only by a number of individuals in the world. Not only restricted by the pe

Designing a lampshade with a Panda theme has been on my mind for a very long time. Maybe two years at this stage. I came up with many different ideas but for some reason, I couldn't really conclude. I think I was stuck by the idea of coming up with something black and white and that was what kept me thinking and bothered me concluding. Eventually I decided that the lamp shouldn't be all about panda as pandas are almost extinct. At the end of the day, extinction is a massive t

Today I want to talk about a special design which means a lot to me personally. Chasing Stars. I have amazing memories of my childhood and have many things in my apartment to remind me of those wonderful days. Every now and than I will go back to my childhood either by staring at these objects or in some other way. I believe it is pretty much the same for many people. Most of us have good memories of our childhood as we all didn't have much to worry about apart from finding w

I think it is the time to tell you about the voyage that a calabash takes until it arrives to your home as a gourd lamp. A 7-8 months process. I will start from the farm and explain until the stage that the preliminary works take place. Right before they are turned into lamps. Our gourd lamps are made from calabash so my article will focus on the calabash rather than other gourds. Why do we choose calabash? Well first of all they grow here, where we live. We are in the middle

I thought it may be a good idea to show you a little bit of where we live and where we work. I believe our environment has a lot of influence on our work as well as our psyche. Our productivity and of course our creativity. Avsallar is a small village right on the Mediterranean coast and in borders of famous Turkish resort, alternatively known as Turkish Riviera, wonderful Alanya. Our village hosts thousands of people during the summer. Comes winter, we are only a bunch of fa

Unlike sculpture or painting, gourd art can be restrictive. You actually work with a vegetable, curvy all around, slippery body, less than half inch of a thickness, 10-15 inches of height and a similar width. Unless you have something in mind or you are making a replica, you may be staring at the calabash and she maybe staring at you and you may get nothing done but drink coffee for hours. Eventually you may consider a bottle of beer for enhanced creativity. :))) Then you are

Home is 'the' place. The place to be. Home is our kingdom. Home is our shelter. Home is where we hide, we cry and we rest. Home is where we return every night. Home is where we die every night and born again every morning. I believe most people would agree with me. World Peace Now It is sad that there are many people out there who can't enjoy even the simplest pleasures and security that a home brings. As an individual I invite world leaders to stop building weapons but homes

Classic Mediterranean gourd craft involves a lot of drilling and beading work. Most of us start drilling holes on a calabash, pre-designed or spontenous, and than gently hammer beads into these holes. We change the size of the drill holes and the diameter of the beads to create different figures, colors and illumination. Drilling on a calabash can be a hard task. The dried surface is usually slippery. The entire body is curvy and as you go up the neck and head section, the su

The hardest gourd crafting technique is what we call 'carving'. There are two types of carvings. The one that starts from the upper skin of the material and goes as deep as a hole opens on the gourd. This is slightly easier than the other carving. The other carving is starting from the outer skin and going as low as the lowest layer and stopping before a hole opens on the calabash. It needs a lot of time, skills and patience. And by mistake you open up a hole. The work is gon

Story of gourd lamps, story of our life style, story of our craft and story of our lives.