ferda irem kaya

Living a few doors down from a mosque in a cosy Istanbul neighbourhood, Ferda shares her modern mezzanine home & studio with many furry companions. One of these four-legged creatures has gone against all the others over the territory of the studio space, helping to reduce the risk of paw prints on the ceramics.

Though she now works more imaginatively than figuratively, there was a time when Ferda ditched nursery school to build the Smurfs’ Village out of Polymer Clay. Looking back, she can’t quite remember making a conscious decision to have a career in ceramics, but she does remember being attracted to it over other mediums because of its tactile nature. 

Ferda’s practice might have changed a lot since those days, but the physically immersive characteristic of clay is still key in her creative process, as it allows her to recall and manifest specific feelings she’s had in the past into ceramic objects.

Explore Ferda’s work below.