Leftovers: a 10th Hamide Days Exhibition

It is the 10th Hamide Days.

Every year from the 20th of February to the 4th of March, we organize Hamide Days in memory of our honorary founder and mother Hamide Yanç Özçetin. The period covers her birthday, passing, and funeral.

This year, we start Hamide Days with an online exhibition showcasing one of her characteristic works :a series of potholders and sponges from leftover materials.

Co-founder and Art director of Hamide Design Studio holding a series of deliberately imperfect potholders
A deliberately imperfect potholder

A deliberately imperfect second life

For most small scraps of fabric, life ends when a sewing project ends. Similarly most clothes retire when some parts of them worn out. But not in Hamide Yanç Özçetin’s atelier. Hamide was obsessed with making use of every little piece. She was notoriously against wasting and would go all the way in her everyday life before disregarding something as waste. The trash bin was her last resort!

Some materials she kept over the years have managed to move from the ‘bohça’ they were kept in (a square piece of fabric used to organize and store materials by wrapping – a traditional practice in Türkiye) to become purposeful things in their second lives. Made out of leftover or worn out fabrics and ribbon scraps, these potholders and sponges are one of those.

A characteristic decision visible across all these pieces is their deliberate imperfection. Neither formed as perfect rectangles or squares nor carrying measured capitone stitches, these pieces stand out with their sketchy attitude. Whether as acknowledgment of their leftover or worn out status or the everyday realities of often messy kitchen lives, these potholders and sponges do not try to be more than they are.

This humbleness in their deliberately imperfect second lives though should not be confused with being less valuable. Hamide valued these as they should have been and put them in our ‘çeyiz’ – dowry prepared for the daughters almost since birth containing the most delicate and valuable handcrafted homeware, jewelry passed on for generations, and such – a traditional practice in Türkiye taken very seriously.

Like her, now we value and appreciate them. We love how they help us remember our mother and honorary founder Hamide Yanç Özçetin, while also being useful in making us smile and holding hot things.

A potholder from leftover materials
A potholder from leftover materials
Two potholders from leftover materials
Two potholders from leftover materials
Two sponges from leftover materials
A sponge from leftover materials
A sponge from leftover materials
A potholder from leftover materials
Two potholders from leftover materials
Two potholders from leftover materials
Two potholders from leftover materials
Two potholders from leftover materials
A potholder from leftover materials
A potholder from leftover materials
A potholder from leftover materials
Two potholders from leftover materials
Two potholders from leftover materials
Two potholders from leftover materials
Two potholders from leftover materials
A potholder from leftover materials
A potholder from leftover materials

Looking for products with similar mindset?

We love reinterpreting Hamide Yanç Özçetin‘s attitude in our new collections both as reproducing her designs but also as new products with the same mindsets. Over the years, we worked with leftovers idea throughout a few collections and product types. One downside is that they are in limited edition. So, here is a few leftovers from leftovers. You can find more under limited edition items.