Turkish inventor allows readers to have their jewelry and eat it, too

Beads are defined as small perforated ornaments generally round in shape and made of glass; however, they can be made of gold, silver and other metals, paste, coral, amber, gems, etc.

Fifty years ago people thought they were used as early as 3500 B.C. in Mesopotamia, where they have been found in the ruins of Assyrian temples, in Egypt where they are part of the decorations on mummies, around the Mediterranean in the graves of the ancient Greeks and Romans and in Britain as early as the Bronze Age.

In Turkey, beads go back about 10,000 years although the figure might be conservative given the increasing number of archaeological excavations. Today we know that the oldest beads that were used as jewelry date from 82,000 years ago and were found in a cave in eastern Morocco. Other finds suggest 100,000 years.

Beads have never stopped being popular over the years whether they were used as ornaments or as a means of remembering one’s prayers. The materials have been varied and are sometimes engraved. Today with so many synthetic materials available, almost any color and any shape can be produced as a bead. And that is what makes Gönül Paksoy’s work with food so interesting.

The first time Paksoy displayed her work was at an international conference held here in Istanbul in 2007 on beads “with products that could be tasted on the spot by the participants,” she writes in her latest book, “Yenilebilir Boncuklar” / “Edible Beads.”

“My aim here was to share this exhibition with a greater number of people by turning it into a book. I wanted to make our visitors smile, to draw their attention to the wealth of Turkey, to remind them of the cherry earrings they wore in their childhood and contribute to their leaving Istanbul with pleasant memories … Everybody was in the best of spirits.”

Paksoy comes from the southern province of Adana and following a university degree in chemical engineering, she obtained master’s and doctoral degrees. She specialized in plants as a source of natural dyes. She has combined her interest in natural dyes with design and currently teaches at the Department of Textiles and Fashion Design of the Mimar Sinan University School of Fine Arts, Istanbul. She has authored various original examples and projects in a wide field extending from food to clothing and from jewelry to accessories.

Three years ago Paksoy produced a two-volume work on beads “Gönül Paksoy: Bead From Collection to Creation” that takes the reader through the history of beads from prehistoric times to this day. These volumes have led the way for her new book, “Edible Beads,” that has just been released and demonstrates her knowledge and creativity in two different fields.

The book demonstrates how Paksoy understands designs and interprets universal dimensions which have always been considered common both in Turkey and throughout the world. She turns many foods, from sage to cinnamon, from onions to potatoes, from sour cherries to mushrooms into jewelry.

In showing food as jewelry, the author establishes a connection between the two through her creative designs, which challenge one’s perception of food as food but without an aestheticism. With Paksoy, there are no longer any limits.

The book includes Reyhan Ekşi’s photographs, Yılmaz Aysan’s capable book design, the anecdotal mythological tales about each dish as it turns into jewelry and the author’s unique recipes. The book offers the reader beautifully photographed jewelry as well as recipes for unusual flavors.

In her introduction to the book, Paksoy stresses the importance of “offering and sharing,” asking her readers to share the aesthetic as well as amusing designs with their loved ones, either wearing them or following the recipes for these dishes. This is not unlike what she did at the conference three years ago.

Paksoy on creativity

To be creative makes a person different. But if being creative is bringing into existence something that has previously not existed, then that is not what humans do, according to Paksoy. People add knowledge and culture to what exists and imagine it as something reorganized and re-interpreted. “Does everybody have creativity? I personally believe that everybody has certain abilities. The contrary does not seem very equitable or fair to me. However, it is a fact that there are few people aware of their capabilities.”

That is what Paksoy has done in looking at the products used everyday in the kitchen. She has approached them differently and has used their appearance rather than their taste or smell to create something new, jewelry. Most of the materials are raw although some have been dried or cooked.

“I re-interpreted them without breaking or hurting them. We know that research has been conducted on the feelings and emotions of plants and I would not wish to hurt their feelings,” she said.

Paksoy said the products she has used in her book have been selective and anyone else interested in the end result is only limited by his or her imagination. She rejects the idea that she has written a cookbook.

“It is a different presentation of the beauty of the kitchen. It is sometimes a book of tales or legends, sometimes a small recollection or a teasing comment and sometimes a book of designs containing a question directed to all of us. As in everything I do, I am only trying to share what is beautiful to me. Sometimes it is sharing the apple in my garden, sometimes the barberries in the past, the myrtle or the physalis [ground cherry] at some other time, or better, sharing all of them and more.

“Only flowers more beautiful than Aphrodite, goddess of beauty, can compete with her. I think that not only flowers, but also their fruit should take part in this competition. As to us, as we cannot partake in this race, would it not be cleverer of us to enrich ourselves with them? As a matter of fact, that is what we do. I included them in this book as edible beads,” she said.

Writers and poets in Turkish literature have immortalized fruits and other products of nature using them to describe loved ones. “For some of them, the beloved has almond-shaped eyes, for others it is olives that are used to describe their beauty. For almost all writers and poets, the loved ones have cheeks like apples, lips like cherries, skin like peaches, a body like a tall and slender cypress. For others, they resemble a mulberry. Olives are certainly comparable only to the eyes of the beloved.

“For Lorca, it is Andalusia he misses so much or the symbol of poverty. For Nazım, it is the symbol of clinging to life or the subject of one of Van Gogh’s pictures. According to André Gide, figs have secret loves. It is said that Leonardo made statues of vegetables and fruit he found in the kitchen. What can be more natural than his interpretations? Some artists immortalized them, some others used them as subjects of mythology or bases of legends, but all were much loved. Even if their flowers could not establish themselves in the hearts of people, they became unforgettable through their fruit,” she said.

“As a matter of fact, what is important is neither the ingredients we use, nor the complicated flavors or the special dishes we make with them. What is important is to be able to offer, to share. It is only when beauty is shared that it remains inside us as unforgettable memories,” Paksoy said.

In the second part of the book includes the dishes Paksoy has designed or interpreted with some of these beads. She suggests that if her readers find other ways of using her edible beads, they should share them with her and others.

“Either wear a laurel crown on your head or wear a pair of cherry ear rings. By the way, did you ever put on cherry earrings?” she asked.