The Turks and earlier the Ottomans have a rich tradition for pottery and ceramics. Go travelling to Turkey and you will be either be taken to a dozen pottery factories or a dozen shops to buy a carpet. Going back from ancient Ottoman traditions of building mansions for birds, a tile factory Hitit Terra in Turkey had a new idea: turn some of the tiles for roofs into nesting boxes for birds.

Enjoy the pictures below, along with some older renditions of Turkish bird houses.

Before you buy however, read the comments from an experienced bird house builder who claims the opening of the house along with the stick is like a snack dispensary for birds. The openings need to be narrow enough for certain species of birds to enter, but not too wide that predators can get in. We also suspect that with warming climates, best be advised to put them on the roof slope away from the sun.

All handmade things, including these Tunisian tiles risk disappearing forever, along with the birds. Let’s support and do handmade so we can keep our humanity and human scale in the built world.

Image credits of 3 images above: canercangul

The post Ceramic tile factory makes roof tiles as bird shelters appeared first on Green Prophet.

“The black vessels stand as a representation of the geological phenomena of sinkholes, a portrayal of those voids that emerge abruptly from the ground, dissolving their surroundings into an irretrievable space,” said Ovalle.

Natural sinkholes occur mostly because of soil erosion caused by underground water, and they start developing long before the hole appears. Sinkholes can also be man-made, as a result of mining, construction, or broken waterlines.  Heavy weight that presses on soft earth can also cause a sinkhole to develop.

Ovalle produced the vessels in cooperation with Colectivo 1050º, a consortium of Mexican artists and artisans that promote and preserve indigenous craft skills.

“By making reference to different process of extinction, the Sinkhole project aims to reflect and extend the permanence of what seems to be inevitably falling into a void,” explained Ovalle.

The pots are shaped by hand using primitive tools like corn cobs; their blackened finish achieved by exposing the fired clay to open flame or burning ashes. The finished pieces are supported by bespoke oak frames which allude to the intersection of ground surface and hole.

The artist based the forms on documented sinkhole formations, crafting foam models in the particular shapes of these hidden topographies. The end result is strikingly gentler than the reality.  This terrifying natural occurrence, when  miniaturized, transforms into a geological dollhouse.

Images of Sinkhole vessels from DEZEEN

The post Sinkholes Transformed into Art by Liliana Ovalle appeared first on Green Prophet.