Contact us
Contact us

From sand to the table

Since 2009 we have painted glass by hand in Istanbul, supplying hotels, companies and luxury brands in more than 30 countries.

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Glass incense burner with hand-painted gold and red patterns, smoke rising from it

Our story

Our name comes from sand, the material glass is born from. It is what we believe: the simplest materials become works of art in the hands of those who master their craft.

Tea glass on a saucer painted with gold and orange patterns

Ramla began in 2009 as a small family workshop in Istanbul, with one painting table and three artisans who had learned to paint glass from their masters. Our pieces were sold in the old bazaars, and visitors carried them home as gifts.

Then requests began to arrive from hotel and café owners who had seen our pieces and wanted them on their tables, and that is when we found the problem. Hand-painted glass was beautiful, but made in quantities too small for a hotel. Wholesale glass was plentiful, but machine-printed, and it had lost its soul.

We built Ramla to bring the two together: a piece painted by an artist’s hand, in commercial quantities and at a consistent quality that businesses can rely on, order after order. We still work the same way, but the single painting table has become a full workshop.

Close-up of gold and red patterns painted by hand on glass

How a piece is made

No piece leaves our workshop before passing through these four stages.

  1. Choosing the glass

    We inspect the glass piece by piece and set aside anything with a bubble, a scratch or a difference in shape, because painting reveals flaws rather than hiding them.

  2. Painting by hand

    The artist paints the pattern with a brush, line after line. A piece takes from twenty minutes to several hours depending on its detail, which is why each one carries the mark of the hand that painted it.

  3. Gold and firing

    Gold lines are added after the colours. The piece then goes into a hot kiln so the painting fuses with the glass, setting its colour and shine.

  4. Inspection and packing

    We inspect each piece twice, after the kiln and before packing, then pack it to reach you safely however far it travels.

Colours of Anatolia

Every colour on our pieces carries a story centuries older than we are. Choose one to read its story.

Turquoise

The colour of domes and tiles in Anatolia since the Seljuks, so much so that its French name means “Turkish”. We paint it on incense burners, where it makes the gold stand out.

Gold

Inspired by tezhip, the Ottoman art of illuminating manuscripts with gold. On tea glasses, its fine lines catch the light with every sip.

İznik red

In the sixteenth century, İznik ceramics became famous for a raised red that turned into their signature. We return to it on Turkish coffee cups, where it suits the warmth and colour of the coffee.

Cobalt blue

For centuries this colour adorned İznik ceramics and the tiles of palaces and mosques. We paint it on tea sets with lines of gold, which grow calmer beside it.

What we believe

What we make

From tea and coffee sets to vases and incense burners, choose what suits your business.

Who we work with

We sell wholesale to businesses and customise pieces to each one’s needs.