(May 2009) The company’s creed is simple: „make something out of the stone“, according to Sener Bayyurt, creative director of the Turkish based Bayyurt. By this he means that the company does not merely sell marble, travertine or limestone, but mainly the upgraded product that has been enriched by ideas and processing.
The showroom creations in Izmir and Istanbul as well as Hamburg and New Jersey are of particular interest in areas hitherto inaccessible to the stone branch.
Take, for example, the mosaic applied to a wall in a sort of endless wallpaper. „Floral“ is a variation showing foliage. The tiles are produced in such a way that stems may be created at will. The pieces forming the picture are a mere 1 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm in size, combined they create a mosaic pixel effect.
The impact of another pixel-mosaic where portraits are created using the mosaic technique is quite surprising: at a distance, one can recognize the subject, whereas close up the image is literally but pixels. As Sener Bayyurt prosaically formulated the idea: „What better way to honour a loved-one, but to figuratively chisel his or her effigy in stone?“
So a customer can send 3 photos to Bayyurt, where the most suitable one is chosen and, after consultation with the customer, a pixel-pattern is manufactured. The picture is blown up to the desired dimension with the aid of a special printer. Then the pieces of the mosaic are put together by hand on this picture. A special net is applied as backing. The pixel-mosaic is attached to the wall like regular tiles. The pieces weigh about 28 kg/m².
One of Bayyurt’s owners is a designer by trade, so it is not surprising that unusual ideas are Bayyurt’s unique selling proposition and distinguishing mark. Thus the company has specialized in bringing out products and uses for stone hitherto unseen, to which the mentioned stone wallpaper and the pixel-photo surely must be counted.
Novel use of stone must also be the stone garden furniture produced by Bayyurt: the braided or woven appearance is but a trompe l’oeil: surfaces are actually made of pixel-mosaic simulating the warp and weft of a weaving. As the stones are but 1 cm thick and the underlying material is made of a combination of fibre glass and fibreboard their weight is limited – an important factor, as garden furniture needs to be mobile.
Of course novel surfaces are also a topic of particular interest for Bayyurt. With the help of a special etching technique waves, spirals or foliage spring out of the stone in repeated patterns that can be combined to endless designs. A strong three-dimensional effect is created by the motif „Lodos“, an homage to the artist Victor Vasarely.
Bayyurt has no fear of breaking with the creed of the branch. A case in point is the gloss finish on relief-structured tiles. The contrast between stone and gloss-coating is interesting in itself but so is the effect caused by the natural veins running through the material.
Gökcin Güven, area sales manager of Bayyurt, who grew up in Germany, notes a great openness for such unusual ideas in Turkey. „People here are ingenious and quick to implement new ideas“, says he. And ads: „It’s the unusual products that bring us success“.
Photos: Bayyurt/Peter Becker
