SwSy Hantverksgrupp
Swedish Syrian handcraft group to Support Immigrants' Craftsmen Integration in Swedish Labor Market
Mosaic Craft, Art and Design
Mosaic is an ancient Syrian art that is more than 300 years deep in Damascus’ history. Early in the 19th century, mosaic existed in the houses of almost all well-established Syrian families, after which it became a familiar décor in presidential palaces around the world.is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral. Small pieces, normally roughly cubic, of stone or glass of different colors are used to create a pattern or picture.
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Pottery Making Technique
Pottery is made by forming the clay body into objects of a required shape and heating them to high temperatures in a kiln to induce reactions that lead to permanent changes including increasing their strength and hardening and setting their shape.
There are wide regional variations in the properties of raw materials used for the production of pottery, and this can lead to wares that are unique in character to a locality. It is common for clays and other materials to be mixed to produce clay bodies suited to specific purposes.
Prior to some shaping processes, air trapped within the clay body needs to be removed. This is called de-airing and can be accomplished by a machine called a vacuum pug or manually by wedging. Wedging can also help to ensure an even moisture content throughout the body.
Mosaic Woodwork
The art of inlaying wood with colored wood veneer. Mosaic veneers are made of various types of wood such as walnut, Eucalyptus and rosewood, with each one having a unique color to give the patterns the desired effect. The craft of mosaic wood from Damascus, Syria, dates back several hundred years. If you’re looking for that single, defining piece of furniture or a sturdy objet d’art that’s strikingly attractive, Syrian mosaic wood might be the answer.The main body and structure of the mosaic pieces is made of beech or walnut wood. The handicraft uses various types of colored wood to make the veneer, such as rosewood, eucalyptus, walnut, almond and lemon wood, in addition to seashells which are imported from Asia. The veneers are made by cutting square or triangular pieces of wood into thin layers that are cut into smaller pieces in various shapes and then glued on the piece's body. Hand-crafted mosaics may take more than two months to make.
Glass making
There are two types of common glassblowing:
Off-hand blowing uses heat and a punty (iron or stainless steel rod) to mold glass. This type requires three different furnaces: a regular furnace to hold the heat, a glory hole to shape and manipulate the glass by heating and reheating, and an annealer to cool the glass to reduce thermal stress.
The other type of glassblowing is lampworking. A punty and heat are also used in this technique. However, with lampworking an alcohol lamp and bellows are used instead of the furnaces. Lampworking is considered the old-fashioned technique, but is still primarily used for the created of glass beads, glass figurines, glass sculptures, test tubes and miniature glass items.