Kiliman & Co. started in 2016 as a shared corner in a friend's framing shop on Moda Caddesi, one wheel and a shelf of hand-mixed glazes that never quite matched.
Elif had come back from three years apprenticing with a potter in Kütahya; Deniz was dyeing wool at the kitchen sink from a copy of a very old book on Anatolian plant colours. When the space next door came free, we knocked through the wall and painted the whole thing white so the pieces would be the only thing with colour in the room.
Nine years on, not much has changed on purpose. We still fire a small electric kiln at the back, still keep the dye pots simmering on Saturdays, and still cap every class at six people so nobody waits for a turn at the wheel. Regulars from the neighbourhood drop in for a coffee and end up staying an hour, which is exactly the pace we were after.
Everything on the shelves is made here, by us or by the people who take our longer courses. Nothing is bought in to fill a gap. If a shelf is empty, it means we sold well that week, and there will be more once the next firing cools.
