Miniature structures have every detail

KOCAELİ

İsmail Kuş (36), a tradesman living in the Çayırova district of the northwestern province of Kocaeli, makes lifelike miniature structures using clay, wood, cardboard and plastic in his workshop in a room of his house.

In his collection, each of 5,000-6,000 pieces, Kuş shows every detail from the carpet hanging on the balcony, the furniture and machinery in the houses to the garbage thrown in front of the door. “There are many who want to buy my works, but I don’t want to sell them. My goal is to open an exhibition in the future,” he says.

A hardware wholesaler in Çayırova district, Kuş got involved in the art of miniatures after a friend asked for wooden materials to make a model rake and then he made a village house using some 300 pieces.

In his workshop he created in a room of his house, Kuş transforms the places that can be seen in a neighborhood - from the gas station to the oven, from the stationery to the auto repair shop, from the barber to the public toilet – into lifelike miniatures using clay, wood, cardboard and plastic materials. He adds every detail of daily life in his miniatures.

Now he has a collection of some 20 miniature structures each made with 5,000-6,000 pieces, and he says he does not sell his works because they are priceless in terms of sentimental value.

Stating that he makes and paints all pieces in his miniatures, Kuş said: “I first made a village house and then come to the buildings. The construction of one of them takes three to four months. The first things I made took around one week, as the details were added, it started to take months. I make all the pieces in my works myself; I don’t use any ready-made products. I used 6,000 pieces in my last model, including bricks, tiles and paving stones,” he says.

Noting that he produces many miniature structures, Kuş says that he didn’t take any training, but he makes things in his visual memory. “I am trying to shape the model by first looking at the photo on the Internet. Then I make the details using products such as clay, wood, cardboard and plastic. There are not many people in Türkiye who can do this. I want to create a museum of my works in the future,” he says.