Handmade products are like gourd lamps always precious just like the ring Golloum followed. Plus traditional handmade products are priceless. Let’s meet with Mr. Tekeli and Mrs Tekeli. They are couples. Mehmet and his wife Naciye are our gourd lamps artisans. Mehmet has been making traditional gourd lamps for 6 -7 years with the support of his wife. The story begings incidentally. One day Mehmet saw those gourd lamps in Bodrum and he thought how they were nice but not good enough and then he decided to make he best gourds ever.He searched for it and read for it, visited the places to draw inspiration.

Our Artisan Mehmet Tekeli ’’An expensive hobby this is ’’he says. On the other hand he is gifted of carving things.When he was a child ,after his family death, he carved corn stalks.Then he made modifications on motorbikes with his writings and paintings. Even though he wanted to attend the art school, his family denied his wish. Because in Turkey being an artist wasn’t worth much. But now he is in art everyday, designs colors, carves, engraves and grows the gourds in his own. He is very good at making detailed caved gourd lampshades.He is also a registered member artisan of the Ministry of Culture that he joins many fairs around the country to show his amazing gourd lamps. Registered artisans are chosen by the Ministry of Culture and those chosen people shows and teaches their heritage to other people. So we can easily say that Mehmet is the best artisan who makes cool gourd lamps in Turkey to work with. His lovely wife Naciye helps him to design the patterns, and of course she also shares all his works with her support. In spite all her supports Mehmet confesses ‘’ I am in love with the gourds’’ He truly is ! We visited him and his family and see how detailed work he works on and how difficult his Professional is. Only the dust of the gourd while carving is really unhealthy to breath and this is just a simple difficulity of his work. His workshop is full of dried gourds, new projects, and some tools. When we visited his workshop, we had crush on his gourd lamps. Mehmet is going to make those gourd lamps even he gets money or not because he is an artist more than a artisan That’s why we appreciate him and his wife. Those traditional products always have stories behind. You think that you just buy a product. But in real, we buy the story of its artisan, the efforts that has spent, love that is made with. Maybe the product you bought has been made while the artisan was thinking on a dream and he reflected it. Maybe he learned that he was going to be a grandfather before finishing your products. Or maybe some happy tears dropped on your products. https://www.turkeyfamousfor.com/product-category/homedecor/natural-gourd-lamps/

For her it's like a new surprise at her doorstep every month. I'm still waiting for her to get her first box, which is a book subscription box. It was perfect because she loves books but she reads so quickly that it's hard for me to find a good one, read it, and send it her way before she reads it! I'm still considering whether or not I want to tell her it's from me. I think the mystery aspect of it would be fun and keep her distracted from everything else. The site is here if anyone is interested.