Mariam Nihal Saudi Gazette A Sevan Bicakci piece is a prime classic in its conception. The timeless and nonconformist jewelry maker is beyond generic comprehension. They are created to live forever. Bicakci, is an illustrious name amongst the Turks. He works with surreal facets like South Sea baroque pearls, keeping both the Byzantine and the Ottoman past alive in his rich work of crafting jewelry. The polished Ottoman artisan lives for the art of jewelry making. His masterpieces are constructed with threads of history, splendor, art of life and fantasy. “We may be the last Mohicans here with our stand against mass production,” said Bicakci. Bicakci said it was all a matter of chance as he found himself at the right place at the right time. Bored by constructing model designs, the jewelry master finally decided to change his life after going bankrupt. He was 29- years-old when he opened the chapter of jewelry making in his life. “It took me almost a year to create the first 50 pieces of my own collection.” In an exclusive interview with Saudi Gazette, Bicakci talks about the art of exquisite jewelry- making. SG: Give us your background story. Bicakci: It was my dad's idea to let me start working as an apprentice in the workshop of one of his close friends since I was incapable of holding myself back from causing trouble all the time during the elementary school years. I was hyper and it was almost impossible to get me to sit and listen to the teacher in the classroom. I was 12 when I first entered the workshop of Hovsep Chatak, my deceased master. He died when I was 18 after which, I opened my first workshop as a model maker. I provided big manufacturers with model masterpieces for many years following their instructions in terms of design. This became very boring in time, as there was no freedom at all for me to come up with my personal design ideas. I had to do what they told me to do and I finally decided to change my life after going bankrupt with such activity. I was 29 when I opened the last chapter of my career with my individual designs. SG: When did you enter the international scene and what is the significance of Turkey as part of jewelry manufacturing? Bicakci: Istanbul has been an important place for jewelry crafting thanks to the need to satisfy the demand of the Ottoman Palace. If you visited workshops / factories of some of the most renowned European brands today, you would find in each one a couple of Armenian-craftsmen with origins from Istanbul. During the Ottoman reign, jewelry making was a quite an Armenian occupation in this city. Many great masters have excelled in the tiny workshops around the Grand Bazaar. The situation is unfortunately quite different today. There are just very few small-scale workshops left. We witness the emergence of big factories, which make extensive use of high tech machinery in order to keep their mass production running. We may be the last Mohicans here with our stand against mass production; however, we have managed to revive and make popular a good number of old craft techniques in addition to inventing some new ones. We decided to do something about entering the international scene in 2005 and sent a portfolio to the vetting committee of a special section within a huge jewelry convention, which takes place in Las Vegas, USA. Upon receiving their acceptance, our creative director Emre Dilaver went there alone. He came back with great news. Our work had become the talk of the show. Soon after that, we found ourselves in business with a couple of very exquisite jewelry and department stores in US. SG: What does a piece of jewelry mean to you? Bicakci: Rather than just being some sort of accessory, jewelry has a higher mission as a kind of attribute. It should make a strong statement about who the wearer is, what she / he believes in, etc. As the wearer is a unique individual, any piece of jewellery she / he wears should be unique as well.
SG: What is the theme of your work and what is it inspired by? Bicakci: My intention is to create jewelry, which reflects my personal identity. I decided to get inspired by whatever gives shape to my soul. Inevitably, the cultural heritage of Istanbul and Turkey has become a very important source of inspirations. It's the architecture, the lifestyle and legends from both the Byzantine and the Ottoman past as I have been spending almost every day of my life being surrounded by fantastic monuments such as the Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque, and the St. Sophia Church, the Grand Bazaar, marvelous fountains, cisterns and mausoleums.
The walking distance from the door of my workshop to any of them is less than 10 minutes. It's the nature and the lifestyle any Istanbul citizen would enjoy during everyday life. Anyone getting to the Asian or European side of the city by one of the Bosphorus boats might catch stunning moments of watching dolphins race with the boat or feed seagulls chasing the boat with pieces of “simit” bread thrown into the air. It's just these little things that inspire me as they define my soul and my identity anyway. SG: What makes your pieces stand apart from the rest? What is that skill that distinguishes you as a designer and makes each of your pieces a celebratory one? Bicakci: Being in collaboration with most exceptional artists and artisans around; continuous experimenting with materials and techniques; taking huge amounts of time to complete each single piece; keeping focus exclusively on creation of one-of-a-kind and unique jewels; paying maximum attention to detail and creating bold statements instead of passive accessories by means of jewelry making, sculpture, painting and else creative processes… SG: What is special about the cut, filing, stones, diamonds and craft you use? Bicakci: We have developed our polishing techniques for colored gemstones and do the cutting ourselves from the rough. As our diamonds are never meant to be in the foreground by maximum sparkle, we only use rose-cuts, old mine cuts and single cuts and never the modern cut. Apart from that, my workshop is not only the place of gatherings of some exceptional jewelry artisans, but also of some amazing painters, calligraphers, sculptors, glassblowers, etc. SG: All of your jewelries are unique yet there is a thread that unifies them all. Do your designs shift based on mood or season? Bicakci: Those shifts are never based on seasons, as the pace of work is too slow in our particular case. It just occurs from time to time to focus on a new idea and then we would do whatever necessary to make it happen. For example, the idea behind my “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea” pieces had been prompted by my acquaintance with Pierre Hajjar who encouraged me to integrate his exceptionally beautiful South Sea baroque pearls into my work. SG: Who do you see wearing your jewelry and who do you wish would? Bicakci: Of course, it has been an honour to see many celebrities so interested in my work. Many of them have such great taste and some are important trendsetters themselves as fashion designers, architects or artists. On the other hand, I must remark that we never create things to fit into some pre-targeted price ranges or to be worn by on specific groups of people. Every creation is meant to join my collection first. Otherwise, I would be forced to make major concessions from creativity for the sake of having more business with target customers. SG: Do you have a favorite piece? Bicakci: All of my pieces are equally important to me because of the fact that they all co-exist. They are fruits of a crazy learning by doing process involving lots of experiments and sacrifice and hence constitute different yet equally important steps within a design evolution.
