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Ottoman
Glass - Fragile Beauty
Credit:
Saudi Aramco World Magazine- By Ms. Elif M. Gokcigdem
You
may wish to know that you can request a free copy of the issue of Saudi
Aramco magazine in which the article appeared by writing to Special
Requests, Saudi Aramco World, Box 2106, Houston, Texas 77252-2106, by
faxing to 713-432-5536, or by e-mailing EK.Catchings@AramcoServices.com.
STILL
RACING AGAINST TIME
However
much
the capacity and the mission of each glass workshop have always differed,
the basic process of handmade glass has remained unchanged for millennia.
I visited the Pasabahce (Pas-a-ba-chech) glass factory in Denizli, Turkey,
one of the largest glass-manufacturing workshops in the Middle East
where traditional handmade glass is still being produced.
Considered a continuation of the late Ottoman
glass industry, Pasabahce was founded in the late 18th century at Beykoz
near Istanbul, on the Asian side of the Bosporus, as part of the industrialization
drive during the reign of Sultan Selim III. Today, it is an internationally
recognized brand whose hand-made products feature contemporary international
designs that appeal to consumers in many countries. In the US, its products
can be found on the shelves of stores such as Crate & Barrel and
Pottery Barn. Pasabahce is also known for its special collections of
fine Ottoman glassware that in its day revitalized the artistic taste
and the decoration techniques of the late Ottoman era, the 18th through
early 20th centuries.
At its current location in Denizli, Pasabahce
employs approximately 1000 craftsmen who work solely on handmade glassware.
Inside, the rhythms of apprentices and masters alike are almost silent,
as they work with great concentration-and caution- in a fast-paced environment
that creates beautiful pitchers, vases, bowls, goblets and other objects
for everyday use. Like bees in a hive, they appear to act as one great
mind together, giving life to an amorphous compound.
Artisans at one of the workshops at the
factory worked in groups of about 10 around four islands, in the center
of each of which rose a glass furnace. Each group worked in a different
rhythm to create a particular object. The inner circle of young apprentices
provided the outer circle of experienced artisans with a well-calculated
amount of molten glass on the tip of a long, hollow iron blowpipe. The
amount of the molten material was measured only by eye, and as soon
as it was received in the outer circle, the shaping began: blowing through
the iron rod; marvering on the flat surface; swinging, swirling or blowing
into a mold that provided surface decoration as well as shape. Then
another artisan gave the piece an elegant handle, one or more feet,
or a beak or a spout as needed, and separated it from the blowpipe with
a chilling pinch of steel pliers and an expert tap. No matter how complex,
each object took only a few minutes from the kiln to final shape: Given
the nature of glass, that is all the time that any glass artisan has
ever had, and only the utmost harmony in the flow of the work can bring
forth beauty.
After the object has received its final
shape, and has been checked by the artisan, it is left to cool slowly
in an annealing oven for approximately five hours. It goes through a
final quality check and then is ready to be enameled and gilded Ottoman
glassware with floral patterns, some goes to artist outside the factory
to be decorated. Despite the modern equipment that is used to prepare
and measure out the compounds that go into the glass and monitor its
temperature, the methods of the artisans are still variations on a theme
that has changed little over thousands of years.
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Read
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Mount Ararat . Ottoman Glass
. Turkmenistan . The
Real Troy
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