WHAT IS TERRA COTTA?
“Terre-cotta: It means unlimited pottery making. It is a concept of Latin origin and refers to the making of pottery-jug used mostly in homes and workplaces in ancient times. In other words, it is a kind of ceramic production.
The copying of pots, pots, sculptures and money made by the master Necip, who has been dealing with mud since the age of seven, is also called imitation.
There are two names that continue this art in the world. One was in Greece and the other was in Turkey (Master Necip).
Master Necip expressed the importance of his ceramics himself as follows:
“I am making replicas of ancient artifacts. I do not buy any raw materials of the ceramics I make from outside. I make the paints myself, draw the secret myself, knead the mud myself and bake it in the oven I made myself. It is not possible to find any other similar work of mine. It took me 40 years to make these works. These dyes are unique to me and there are no synthetic mixtures. Also, there is never any discoloration. Also, if I don’t sign these works, it will be very difficult to separate them from the real ones.”
In the meantime, Belgium and Sweden, hearing the master’s fame, invited him to their country, but Necip Savcı rejected these offers, saying, “My inspiration is Aphrodisias, I can’t leave here.”
The late Necip Savci, the famous terra cotta (terra cotta) artist of Turkey, who introduced himself as the “Last Hittite” because he produced pottery as in the Hittites period, one of the ancient civilizations of Anatolia, continues the terra cotta art that he learned from his father, his son Hasan Hüseyin Savcı. He said that the ornaments he made from clay could be shown as rivals to those made in Italy.
This art is also practiced in Italy and Greece. But while the ones made in Greece are made with artificial dyes, they are made as articles of use in Italy. Terra cotta literally means making unglazed pottery. It is mostly used as ornaments and ceramics in homes and workplaces.
As I learned from my late father at the age of seven, I deal with mud. The essence of this work is the art of painting the soil with the soil. Its colors are also earthy. After mixing the clay soil I brought from the mountain in mud boats, I pass it through sieving processes.
Then I start to knead the muddy soil like dough in my hand. Then I put this kneaded mud on our ceramic lathe. Here I am starting to shape according to demand.
After the shaping process is finished, I go through the fine details of polishing, cleaning, sanding, paint it with a brush and bake it for 8 hours in a special oven at 1,150 degrees.”
The prosecutor stated that this art is a very difficult and laborious job and emphasized that the life of the items he made completely depends on the use, but the paint did not come off.
We have our own quarries on the mountain. We mix the soils with various characteristics that we brought from there.
In addition to soil, we also use small stones called rocks.
We pass the stones through crushers and mills. Then we sift it and get sludge in the form of miles,” he said.
