Meze & Moules
Activity · 15 Sep 2026 · 25 photographs

Atelier Thamga, Bodrum

Atelier Thamga has printed cloth by hand in Bodrum since 2019, one wooden block at a time, with Zeynep Semiz leading the workshops. Ipek's mother is an artist; here the drawing was done for her, in wood, before she arrived. Same blocks, same paint, two very different cloths: hers a grid, Ipek's a scatter.

On the map: Bodrum

One of us and another woman in aprons printing at Atelier Thamga, glimpsed past blurred fabric
Pink bougainvillea framing the glass door of Atelier Thamga, its name in a white circle
Four women in aprons around the long printing table, seen from above beside shelves of goods
A woman printing at the table's end while two others in aprons look on
Shelves of cloth bags, printing blocks and clay jugs under a painting of a crowned woman
Wicker baskets heaped with carved wooden printing blocks, the long worktable blurred behind
Tubs of paint in burgundy, rust, blue and yellow, each with its own sponge dauber
One of us dabbing paint onto a long wooden block with a sponge
One of us pressing a small block onto cloth, another woman working at the far end
One of us standing over a cloth of scattered printed shapes, shelves of goods behind
One of us pressing a long wooden block onto the cloth with both hands
One of us pressing a long block beside a freshly printed red ring and purple shape
A woman bent over the table, stamping a geometric grid of stripes and pinwheels onto cloth
One of us and another woman leaning over the printed cloth, two more working beyond
Four women at work along the table under three black pendant lamps, big windows behind
A woman in a paint-spattered Atelier Thamga apron reaching for blocks, a gilt mirror behind
A woman in a purple top and apron, smiling, her hand on another woman's shoulder
Shelves of books and colourful carved printing blocks beneath an old painted wooden panel
The workshop reflected in a tall mirror, three women at the long table under pendant lamps
One of us and another woman smiling in aprons behind a freshly printed grid
One of us and four other women smiling together behind the two finished cloths
The finished grid of stamped stripes, pinwheels, triangles and circles in red, yellow, green and blue
Printed shapes scattered loosely along a cream cloth: crescents, a ring, a bean, leaves and sprigs
The grid cloth and the scatter cloth side by side, printing blocks lying between them
A cluster of paintbrushes and round sponge daubers on the worktable, a gilt mirror beyond