Mother of Pearl class

Mother of Pearl inlay is an old tradition here.  In the photos from the Topkapi Palace you can see some wooden pieces with mother of pearl inlay in them.  Several of the students have been interested in learning how this is done.  They asked for a class and we've been trying to arrange it with one of the master craftsmen here.  We finally had the class last week, and it was interesting, but not really long enough to learn how to do the complete inlay.  We mainly focused on cutting the mother of pearl.  They provided a lot of pieces of mother of pearl for us to work with, and showed us how to cut it using a coping saw with a very thin blade.  The trick for this type of precision work is that the saw blade is so fine that it is easily broken.  All cuts need to be made at a right angle to the mother of pearl pieces being cut, and when the artist reaches a sharp acute angle, the work has to be rotated without breaking the blade.  This is a particularly difficult skill for beginners, and most of us went through a number of blades in the process.  In the end, though, we had hand cut mother of pearl pieces with a hole drilled in them for hanging.  The craftsmen at the workshop were helpful in demonstrating some of the most tricky cuts, but I can definitely see that it takes some practice.

Aydin cutting out his design.  Aydin said that he really enjoyed doing this and would like to see if it's possible to pursue it more once he gets home.  

Alisha drawing her design, with scrap pieces of mother of pearl in front of her.