We made it! The mosaic parts and me have arrived safe in Ayvalik. All went well. The only tricky situation during the trip was when I arrived in Istanbul and the costums officer asked me to open my suitcases. Oh I was sweating! They brought an extra art specialist to look at the mosaic but he immediately recognized it as new. I was sweating not only because I feared they would confiscate it but also because I had to open the elaborate packaging – it took me over half an hour to close it again. 
Which was then lovingly handled by our friend Ümit who picked me up in his red car at Istanbul airport and together with his wife hosted me for one beautiful day in the city by the Bosphorus.
On Monday night I arrived in Ayvalik. Tulya my dear friend fetched me at the bus stop in the middle of the night with my super heavy suitcases. It is so nice to be back and feel soo at home at her house.
But also our house has made good progress. On Tuesday I arranged my workshop in the house. It’s so nice to be reunited with the fish figures that we made in Gaziantep. This week my job was to add the kontur lines around the figures in background color
The workers had to make some changes in the Hamam bathroom.
Wednesday, Dariya a young restaurateur, started to help with the background stones that have to be added to two wall parts.
On Thursday Nazuh started to work with the stone breaking machine that was kindly sent by Kargo from Ankara by Mustafa Salih my first mosaic teacher.
Nazuh also brought the concrete mixer from the Manzara company to tumble the background stones. (Manzara Ayvalik will later look after our house and let it – click on the link and you see their other properties for rent)
The tumbling works very well. Why did I not enquire about this earlier?
After one hour of tumbling with a bit of sand and water, the stones come out with beautifully soft edges and all sides equally colored. No polish or rough surfaces left. Very useful !
On Friday and Saturday we searched for containers that have a nice shape for the hamam sink – the kurna. Traditionally it is a marble basin without any drain that stands on top of the bench and holds the water which is baled out to soak your body with a smaller bowl.
In our hamam the kurna will be molded into the bench and we decided to decorate it with mosaic too. But which shape shall it have? Today we had 5 shapes to decide from.
