Sevan Biçakçi : Take Me There

Really, this all started as an adventure, nothing was planned. It was about making a dream come true…

–Sevan Biçakçi

Sevan Biçakçi’s work… is… beyond.

Impossible perfect, unreal.

Sevan’s work is one of the most sophisticated mind-eye-imagination balancing acts that I have experienced. His pieces are independent realities – worlds within worlds of imagination, fantasy, reality. When you look into his pieces, it almost feel like your heart is floating into a middle world between The Chronicles of Narnia and Hayao Miyazaki’s groundbreaking films such like Spirited Away.

The designs are inspired by Sevan paying homage to his native Turkey on a historical, architectural, religious and spiritual level, with influences coming from Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia Church and the Topkapi Palace among others.

“… Sevan’s work…represents authentic and contemporary artistic trends with exquisite elements of Turkish inspiration. The Islamic tradition is an inevitable inspiration source behind Sevan Bicakci’s work that has been living within Istanbul’s ancient city walls since birth. His rings are meant to reflect the soul of his hometown, which is itself bejeweled by masterpieces of Islamic / Ottoman architecture.”

-Emre Dilaver, Creative Director Sevan Biçakçi

There is a depth, layering, complexity, detail in his work that is… just unreal. Even the detailing of his fantastic, labor intensive technical process, (…with sterling silver and 22k as bases, Sevan cuts facets on the face of the stone and then reverse carves his specified imagery underneath on the inside of the stone. He then hand paints and hand sets up to ten thousand individually painted miniature mosaics to create the images..he then paints and encrusts the pieces with fine and precious gems such as black, grey, white diamonds, tourmaline, kyanite, topaz ) does not explain the feelings that are conjured from a glance into the worlds that live on the other side of your palm when adorning yourself with one of Sevan’s pieces. His pieces take from three months to over a year to create, as his meticulous masterpieces and effort must be arranged perfectly.

As a young boy, Sevan was restless and troublesome but loved working with his hands and was highly creative. His father saw this and at the young age of twelve, put him under the apprenticeship of master goldsmith Hovsep Chatak, to encourage him and give him more structure. The rest, as you can see is…beyond.

Through this his study with master jeweler Chatak, Sevan grew and learned discipline and expanded and built his manifestation of his art.

Sevan remains grateful to his master to this day, and when asked about his experience with his master, he often begins with a popular saying in Instanbul:

…unless the apprentice gets better than his master, the craft will die… The most important thing I learned from my deceased master was actually manners. I was a crude boy, only twelve years of age. I didn’t know how to behave in a professional environment. I learned how to be respectful, listening first, thinking, and then talking. With regards to creating a style, what I am making right now is my “comment”.My master told me that I had to find my own language to express myself with jewelry-making and that is what I am trying to do.

His work is highly visceral for me as I look into those bottomless cities in his rings, the Atlantises or rising cities of our reality and of the world of these beautiful coincidences which are gems… they serve as a constant reminder…

that

The Impossible is within our Grasp.

All images courtesy of Sevan Biçakçi.