International Mosaic Competition and Exhibition Gaziantep, Turkey 2013

And the winners are…..here is my piece that got 3rd prize.

We all arrived in the late afternoon in Istanbul,  so it was just a little stroll in the spice market before dinner….

Martin Cheek highly recommends this restaurant Bab-i Hayat, look at the view to the spice bazar, priceless!

Next day we are off to Gazientep, 2  hour flight. What a suprise an old in and market converted into a hotel, it was really beautiful and the breakfasts are delicious! Here I am with Gazanfer from Macedonia, his role was very important he was one of the jury members, gulp! It was lovely to be there with Lilian Broca, my co-Canadian…meet Marcelo de Melo from Brazil, Fernando from Argentina, Olivera from Serbia.

A first official visit to Nizep where we learn what this region is famous for…pistachio, cotton….

To me this was the highlight of the trip, visiting and archeological site of Zeugma, Nizip, where mosaics were salvaged from fire when the city burned.

There was a construction of a dam, the result all the pale area you see on the map was land before….lots of treasures lay under the waters. We had a lovely tour and explainations thanks to archeologist Kutalmis Gorkay who is the director of this site.

Here I am with Fernando from Argentina!

We so very often took group photos…here you see Saad, from Egypt, Irena from Russia, here I am with Toyoharu from Japan…

Then we went to a bird sanctuary…the bald Ibis, (if my memory is good)…..their story is fascinating.

And the winners are…..here picture size in order of importance of the check! Congratulations to the big big winner Giulio Menossi, it was a thrill for me to be his official interpreter. Second place to Tulin Kaynak from Turkey. Here we are  all of us together with all the special guests and honorary winners…and me talking about my rugs.

A quick tour of the spice souk before our evening dinner…here we are with Kate Kerrigan from the US, Giulio Menossi and Rosa from Italy and our Japanese friend Toyoharu Kii.

Martin Cheek makes me laugh A LOT! Ali another translator of ours with Selma and Olivera Strbac from Serbia.

We love to play banana word game with Martin in the late evenings with Whisky drink. Above we are with Karen Ami from The Chicago Mosaic School, Neslihan from Bodrum and our other lovely Turkish translator and guide..ouff forgot her name. She was also a treasure to us.

Here we are celebrating this very important day with the  Turks…. I was delighted to see Oguzhan Tugral (Oz)  again. Suha Semerci the organiser is sitting with Marcelo de Melo from Brazil but living in Amsterdam.

The children were most charming….

A little tour around town after the celebrations. Selma here is relaxing with Martin Cheek, yes nice photo!

We were offered this lovely turkish lunch, before the big hoopla of the event….Here we have Sonia King and Kate Kerrigan from the US, Pamela Irving from Australia…pardon me the names for the others

The 3 top winners and thier mosaics, both live and in high resolution photos….I love the Ataturk mosaic looking onto mine…

As Camper says it so well, Imagination Walks…..

In Urfa we stopped for tea and turkish coffee, this is Marcelo de Melo’s cup.

A big thank-you to Turkey for this most incredible and enriching experience!