Ceramic Traces of Times forgotten

By Heidi Trautmann

Some weeks ago Ayhatun Ateşin, Mümine Özdemirağ and Rauf Ersenal have been holding a workshop at the Bandabuliya, one of the praiseworthy art activities to bring life into the place.

It is not the first one and will certainly not be the last one.

On 23 September the ceramic students of all age groups had their work displayed in the beautiful hall of the Bedesten just opposite. I took a photo of one of the younger ones proudly showing me his certificate.

Lovely things that the students had created under the tutorship of the experienced ceramists who have also shown their work. Ayhatun Ateşin with her unique water fountains and wash stands, Mümine and her relief works and Rauf Ersenal giving us an idea how the old Bronze Age ceramics looked like. It is his hobby to research old techniques, patterns either painted like the Greek or Roman or black clay pottery, the pattern cut or carved. He said that he has the studio in his garden and a kiln made from bricks which he fires with wood but he waits for a windy day so the flames are brought to intense heat, sometimes to 1200°C; the ware has to remain in the fire for twelve hours. The fire makes a nice effect on the earthen ware.

The Bedesten is a nice place to enjoy art, your thoughts can easily travel to the past when people still made their own pots for the soup they ate and made pots just to enjoy the form and the pattern they have made. We today have not invented creativity, it was always there, only different.

See the whole range of photos on my website.