Linking east and west throught jewelry

Turks’ flamboyant adventure with jewelry began when the palace life was moved to Istanbul, and Ottoman court was introduced to the Byzantine’s delicate jewelry art after the conquest of Istanbul in 1453. When the gold and silver mines in Balkans were invaded, the lapidaries there also immigrated to Istanbul. It was not hard at all to find priceless and elegant jewelry made by handicraftsmen in the ‘big bedesten’ where lapidaries got together in the Grand Bazaar. Even though the power of Ottoman had already declined by the 18th century, the Tulip Period in which entertainment and luxury life style was adopted encouraged people to live in a more glorious way. We learn from the resources that several Armenian artists have worked as lapidaries up until now. In the memory of many unknown masters of jewelries each of which is a story itself, we head for the artists who carry on performing this art bravely with modern perspectives. Today, the pioneers of modern art of jewelry in Turkey are surely inspired by the Ottoman tradition of glorious jewelry. At least they have used the jewelry stories that they listened to when they had a chance to caress the gold and newly-cut precious gems in tiny jewelry ateliers at the dark corridors of the Grand Bazaar in their works a little bit. Turkey is always torn between east and west because of its location. Inspiring many artists, this dilemma can both enrich and complicate the designs. The pioneers of modern jewelry in Turkey, Ela Cindoruk and Nazan Pak have always managed to survive in their own ateliers with intemporal designs. Known for her paper designs as well as gold ones with simple touches, Ela Cindoruk was awarded an honorable mention in Red Dot Design Competition 2012. Nazan Pak, on the other hand, competes against perfection with her enamel designs that stand out with delicate details. Meral Değer whispers in our ears the naïve stories of her designs, which she creates by interpreting old techniques with contemporary materials. Also involved in the art of glass, the artist reflects the transparency she catches in glass into her jewelry designs. For younger designers, we come across talented names such as Burcu Büyükünal, Selen Özüş and Burcu Sülek. If you take a look at the works of Burcu Büyükünal, who pushes materials to the edge of their limits, you can see that she has cracked all secrets of metal. Using porcelain as skillfully as she uses metal, Selen Özüş displays surprising expressions in her jewelry designs with human figures. Burcu Büyükünal and Selen Özüş are also the founders of Maden jewelry design school in Istanbul. Who could stay out of the east-west problem that we mentioned above is the artist Burcu Sülek, the freedom junkie. The fact that she could bring together unexpected materials such as gold and sponge with simple techniques shows us that she has quite internalized modern jewelry. Aside from those talents, we should also mention two galleries who have dared to open its doors to modern jewelry. One of them is Armaggan Art & Design Gallery, which aims to support young artists. The works displayed here are produced specifically for the exhibits. Also a design&production atelier in the historical peninsula of Istanbul, Armaggan is specifically important in keeping traditional Turkish handiscrafts up to date. Having been opened in January 2010 in Nişantaşı, Soda, with its brave exhibitions and projects, keeps up bringing together open-minded audience with innovative local&foreign names, offering the best examples of contemporary trends, and having different perspectives on being a collectioner. In this respect, Soda is the most important jewelry gallery in Turkey.