When I arrived in Turkey from the Netherlands as a tour leader in 1994, I fell in love with the country, and soon after, with my husband. As my children were growing up, I devoted all my time to them.
Although I was always quietly creating things at home, my true turning point came when I saw a sculpture my sister had made using Powertex. I was so captivated by it that I reached out to the company owner to see if they sold it in Turkey. To my surprise, I received an unexpected offer: "We aren't there yet, but would you like to be our distributor?"
That was the exact moment my ongoing artistic journey began.
After completing a brief training in Belgium, I spent the next 13 years entirely self-taught, developing my own techniques. Today, what brings me the most joy is helping people discover their hidden creativity—just like I did 13 years ago when I had no idea of my own potential. If I could do this at 47 years old without any formal art education, why couldn't you?
When I first started out, I followed the examples I saw in the Powertex community, but the materials they used—like large styrofoam balls—were quite expensive. Searching for a more affordable alternative naturally led me to look at the things we throw away.
I quickly realized that plastic waste can be molded into almost any shape imaginable. For years now, I have been saving household plastic packaging to use as the structural foundation for my artwork. I absolutely love the challenge of taking something completely useless—like a broken hubcap, scrap fabrics, or an empty water bottle—and transforming it into something beautiful and worth admiring.
I know I cannot save the planet all by myself, but this is my way of doing my part. Every piece of plastic that turns into art means a little less waste left behind in the world.
While I run the creative side and host the workshops here at Lilart Studio, my husband Ertürk Zobi is the driving force behind the scenes at Lilart Sanat, handling our Powertex distributorship and product sales. A professional tour guide by day, Ertürk manages all our logistics, finances, and organizational details. By taking on the numerical and operational heavy lifting, he ensures that the art and materials reach you flawlessly.
And while my Turkish is quite good, it isn't my native language, so sometimes I struggle to put my exact thoughts into words—that is exactly where he steps in to help. Even though he cannot be in the studio a lot, we are all irreplaceable pieces of this wonderful operation.
