Sand artist Hasan Uyar in the southwestern province of Burdur’s Bucak district is turning waste marble into works of art, contributing to recycling while producing various pieces in his workshop.
A graduate of the Marble Technologies Department at Süleyman Demirel University in 2007, Uyar began his artistic journey during his student years by creating mosaic images from marble fragments. Over time, he expanded his practice by grinding marble pieces into powder and moving into sand art.
Now 54, Uyar continues his work at a workshop he established at Mehmet Akif Ersoy University’s Emin Gülmez Vocational School of Technical Sciences. He collects discarded stones from marble factories in the district, processes them into small particles using machinery and then crushes them further in a mortar to obtain fine powders. By sifting the material, he produces marble dust in varying degrees of fineness.
Applying marble powders of different colors and textures onto his drawings, Uyar creates original portraits and compositions without artificial coloring, relying solely on the natural tones of the stone.
Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, Uyar said his aim is to recycle unused marble materials and bring them into art. “My goal here is to ensure the recycling of idle marble. When our district governor visited, he suggested that I should teach this to others and open a course. A course was launched to ensure the continuity of this work,” he said, adding that it is also possible to generate income after learning the craft.
Referring to his portrait of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Uyar said: “I worked on this piece for three months. I used 21 different stones, all from our region. It was the first piece I created. I made a great effort to capture the expression on Atatürk’s face. Stones I collected from a stream turned into such an artwork.”
