During the postwar years, it was very difficult to find any kind of materials to build furniture.
Sadi Ozis had to use water pipes or construction metal bars for the first time to produce metal furniture at Kare Metal.
Sadi Ozis tells how they managed to come over the hardship:
“… In that time there was nothing for producing metal furniture. Only water pipes and construction iron bars and they were crooked and uneven. We were looking for a way to make them straight. We found the Mico in Persembe Bazaar. He was a well known guy. He had a filthy shop. He was heating our metal bars, rolling and straightening. When we had new orders, it became very difficult to find straight pipes. During that time Huseyin Kocabiyik and Asım Kocabiyik started to produce pipes. But it was necessary to make them ready for furniture production. Mico found a solution to that problem too. We had steel molds made and worked the round pipes with these to produce pipes in different structures.
Chair made from real fishnet
Even pipe producers were surprised. Therefore we produced metal pipes for furniture production.” I was a student at the Academy in 1960s. Those pipes were an innovation back then.
We could use these pipes that we saw for the first time to produce various articles. These pipes were used in furniture production and interior design&decoration for many years. In 1960’s there was no sub-industry for furniture in Turkey, thus Sadi Ozis had to invent continuously. Let him tell us how it was:
“…All the material we used for furniture production was produced for different purposes. For instance we used metal sheets that were used in sieve production in some of our furniture. We asked cable producers to make cables without wires in them because it was necessary for weaving. We ordered special nets to women who were making mussel nets. We had serious problems when it came to upholstery of metal furniture. Because nobody knew how to do it, they never worked with such furniture till then. Upholsterers were nailing the fabric to wooden furniture. We found solutions to put metal and wood together, trained upholsterers. There was no foam either. We trained a couple of people who were producing bad quality foams in primitive ateliers. Actually this foam lost its flexibility in 1-2 years and turn to dust but we have no other option. Painting was another problem. Cellulose paint was not available in Turkey. There were no ovens to dry the paint. We made an oven using hundreds of incubator bulbs.
Armchair made from chicken frame
The only bright side was that the Academy community was very much interested and almost everyone purchased these. Unfortunately I was very tired of it and let go.” Therefore the metal furniture production lead by a bunch of artist from the Academy faded after 1967. However these efforts bear fruit soon. Especially after 1968 metal furniture industry shows a surprising development.
The events I summarized above set the foundation of extraordinarily developed furniture industry and design in Turkey. On the other hand, if people who purchased this rare furniture are still keeping them it means they have a very special collection of Turkish furniture design.
Source: Art + Decor 1995 by Onder Kucukerman
Onder Kucukerman and Sadi Ozis in 1995
