Floor mosaic for shower room/turkish bath, 2015/16, 4m2, in private residence, Ayvalik, Turkey

8 years ago I designed, produced and laid a 4m2 floor mosaic in our vacation home in Ayvalik on the North Aegean coast.

This work and my involvement with it brought me into contact with Turkish artists who taught me a lot and, from whom I learned how to work with natural stone and roman cement.

My first teacher was Mustafa Salih Kamanlioglu. He runs a mosaic studio in Ankara. He taught me how to break natural stone into small pieces for mosaic (tesserae).

Mustafa Salih Kamanioglu with one of the mosaic replica in his studio in Ankara 2013

My second master was Nusret Özdemir. He lives in Gaziantep, in the south east of Turkey and taught me how to assess field stones for mosaic suitability. I also learned from him how to break a tessera into a small tooth so that they can be placed closer together.

Master craftsman Nusret Özdemir in search of a suitable stone that can be broken into small mosaic pieces

Nusret smashes a sawn rock.

A third teacher was Hande Kökten, who was the director of Ankara University’s School of Restoration Technicians at the time. Despite my limited Turkish, she admitted me to her lessons on the conversation of ancient mosaics. There I mainly learned how to produce and use Roman cement (made from sand, slaked lime and brick dust).

Mosaic Conservation Training 2015

During my visit to artist Mieke Ceusters in Geel near Antwerp, she drew my attention once again to the specific mosaic laying techniques of the Spilimbergo Mosaic School. This made me want to continue my education at this school.

Visit to Mieke Ceusters in Geel near Antwerp in June 2024

You never stop learning!