[TurkC-L] x0x Pebble mosaic pavements - Carpets of stone
Turkish Radio San Francisco
One square meter of pebble mosaic comes from two thousand six
hundred and fifty individually placed upright pebbles. A single
trained person can make about one quarter of a square meter of pebble
mosaic per day
Today's pebble mosaics form a part of an anatolian tradition
which date back through the centuries to the prehistoric period of
cave dwellers
T.M.P. Duggan
Antalya - Turkish Daily News
From 5000 B.C. onwards the art and craft of decorative pebble flooring
has been practiced in Southern Anatolia. On floors exposed by
excavation at Cayonu in examples dated to the prehistoric period,
through to the traditional Southern Anatolian architecture with its
pebble paved courtyards of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries it is
apparent. Pebble mosaic differs from the more famous Roman or
Byzantine mosaics because the pebbles are inserted vertically into a
mortar bed rather than being composed of cubes of stone or glass
(tesserae) forming a flat even surface.
The mortar bed for a pebble mosaic during the Ottoman period was
composed of sand, lime, earth and egg whites, which when combined in
the correct proportions formed a type of Horasan mortar, waterproof
and stronger than concrete. Many of the traditional houses in Kale
Ici, Antalya dating from the 18th and 19th centuries have courtyards
paved with a pebble mosaic which served more than just a purely
decorative function. The traditional pebble mosaic provided, with the
gaps between the individual pebbles, a place where water cast over the
stones could lay and this water provided an effective air conditioning
unit where the water cooled the air which circulated through the house
in the summer. The traditional house, built around a courtyard, was
designed, in its distribution of rooms and their ventilation, to
maximize the cool air flows from the courtyard and its wet or damp
mosaic. The water cast over the mosaic also brought out the bright
colours and patterns employed by the families of craftsmen who
practiced this art-craft of pebble flooring.
New pebble mosaic pavements
Today a team from Matusan, based in Makca,
Istanbul are continuing this 7000 year old Anatolian tradition of
pebble flooring. Mehmet Isikli from Antalya spoke of the team's work
and their latest completed projects. He thinks compares the team from
Matusan who create these mosaics to an orchestra, the conductor being
the architect Sinan Sensoy, the soloist being Mehmet, the violinists
Muharrem Tufan and Mustafa Verim and the oboist Yasar Guler while the
"pebble mosaic orchestra's" computer is run by Yesim Hanim.
Once the project to fill a certain specified area with pebble mosaic,
using traditional designs, has been approved by the client, the
"sablons" or templates are cut. The pebbles are brought from storage
and the work of laying the sand and cement floor in which the pebbles
are set begins. It is important that the bed is flat and the area has
to measured and clearly defined to provide regularity and balance to
the finished design. The computer is useful in the presentation to the
client, in calculating the areas and quantities of pebbles involved
and in mapping the area covered by each individual design in relation
to walls, flower beds, staircases and other designs.
The depth of the foundations of the bed in which the pebbles are set
is eight centimeters and one single square meter of pebble mosaic is
made from 2650 individually laid pebbles. On average a single trained
person is able to complete about 0.25 of a square meter of mosaic,
placing 660 pebbles in position, in a day of backbreaking care and
attention, particularly where one color of pebble meets another in the
design. However, the pebble pavement is the work of many hands and
eyes working as a single body like an orchestra. The templates used
are designed as reusable tools and the elements of each individual
design are defined by these templates. Complex designs are broken into
their constituent elements and with axial symmetry, where a design
repeats itself segment by segment, each segment being completed before
the next is begun. The background colored pebbles, usually white, are
laid first then the colored ones. An average pebble mosaic employs 50
percent white, 30 percent black, 8 percent brown, 7 percent beige, 3
percent green and 2 percent yellow pebbles.
Each pebble is placed on its end with one third of the pebble inserted
into the bed of mortar, two thirds above. This gives the texture to
the mosaic as the light and shadows play over the surface. A well laid
pebble mosaic can last 1000 years and longer and costs today,
dependant on the intricacy of the designs, between $200 and $600 per
square meter. The pebbles are obtained from rock strata near Demre in
Antalya and are selected and graded according to their shape, size and
color.
These modern professionals of the craft of pebble mosaic use the same
number or even more pebbles than are to be seen on traditional pebble
mosaic pavements. With a repertoire of varied appropriate and
traditional designs and with a demand for their work mainly in
Istanbul as well s sites of cultural importance, this traditional
craft, which has survived all the upheavals, invasions and troubles of
Anatolia's long history to the present. It will be maintained and
develop as a skill producing works of beauty into the 21st century.
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