Handicraft

Mirror Polished Aluminium Tension Stool.  

Natural Sequoia Wood Swivel Side Table, Custom Joinery.  

Fused Plastic Bags Lampshade, revealing the translucent qualities of waste plastic.  

Heat-Treated Stainless Steel Ripple Plate, shows the different hues attainable with the magic material.

Denis has been working with copper since childhood (probably started around 2000.), with old craftsman in Old town, Pero Đidić, a family friend. Since 2019. Denis is working with Selma Sultanić in AbrakaBakra Copper Art atelier and gallery in Old town, still improving skills and making new works of art every day.
Intertwining art with local tradition is our goal and inspiration. Copper reliefs and their handpainted reproductions, jewelry, bookmarks, magnets and orgonites are just a piece of our artistic vision. We want to expand our production to furniture. Our works are mainly generated with recycled copper found in waste and without use of any specialised machinery.

Our intention is to spread the message of universal love, wisdom, and positive energy by integrating it into our art.

I love working with copper becouse it is very interesting. It needs to be burned in fire around five times before I finish it. Then it changes colors and it gets softer. When the relief is finished, it needs to be cleansed with the acid, then with the brush, then colored (patina), then polished, then washed with detergent and then lacquered. It is the same with the jewelry. I can finish one relief dimensions 35 x 20 cm in couple of hours. In the same time Selma can make two couples of wire earings. Or I can make bracelets/bangles. I am not sure that I understand the question completely so I'll just move on! I hope our work speak for itself.

If we would do presentation on the stage we would need: one copper plate 35 x 20 x cm and 0,8 mm thick, 1 meter of round copper wire (diameter 4 mm), 3 m of round copper wire (diamete 0.6 mm) etc.

In photos and video above I used combination of hand embroidery and acrylic paint on small dimension canvas, as well as beads on some of the paintings. My goal was to show that contemporary art and traditional art can look beautiful when combined. Each painting requires patience and a lot of time. Every detail on the painting is there to emphasize how perfect and impeccable nature is.

That’s how her handicraft brand “Wishes in a nutshell” was born. Each figure and scene is created with the utmost attention and love to stop the moment, catch the movement and emotions, make the relations between figurines and make a tangible 3D depiction of the moment. Every “captured moment” becomes a precious amulet in someone’s hand and is brought to life with each reopening. At that point, all the emotions, smiles, hugs, love, gratitude, attention, support, the beauty of the moment, colors, and shapes are reborn. The scene in which everything else is gently packed, hugged with a tight membrane, carefully preserved in the core of the nut, also comes to life. The nut’s core symbolizes sincerity that comes from the heart. Here the words are not needed.

Each nutshell is full of greetings, hugs, smiles and emotions which become touchable by using real shells of the walnuts, making figures and context of plastic, clay, textile, cotton wool, moss, wood, painted with acrylic paint. For presentations of my work I used to make videos, short films and gifs. It is also, one more way to make a frozen moment alive.

The most important material for everything that I make is love, love that I put inside the things I do. Each story, from the group of stories, about little nuts, is full of unique life moments, memories and best wishes.
It is like a cocktail of the best things and people that life gave us, looked through the eyes of the architect, gently touched by the heart, embraced with ten fingers, colored in happiness, scaled to be packed easier. This is a whole story, told “in a nutshell”.