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Havva DökmeciTezhip · Hüsn-i hat · Geometry

Illumination, calligraphy and geometry

Tezhip

A tradition kept in gold, drawn one petal at a time.

View the workAbout the practice
Black brush calligraphy sweeping up and to the right across cream paper, its curves cradling two illuminated crescents in lapis, sky blue and gold, each filled with tiny white blossoms and finished with a fringe of pointed gold petals

Calligraphic composition, 2026

What tezhip is

Tezhip is the illumination of sacred manuscripts, a Turkish word from the Arabic root zeheb, gold. To illuminate is to ornament with gold, and the vocabulary of the form is the : motifs built up in fine layers of pigment, each shape carrying a name and a history of its own.

I work in that vocabulary, alongside Arabic calligraphy and Islamic geometric drawing, from a studio in Greenville, South Carolina.

Selected work

Recent pieces

All work
Black brush calligraphy sweeping up and to the right across cream paper, its curves cradling two illuminated crescents in lapis, sky blue and gold, each filled with tiny white blossoms and finished with a fringe of pointed gold petals
2026
A lobed medallion painted in deep indigo on cream paper, its interior cut through with pale split-leaf scrolls around a coral twelve-petal flower, a thin coral line running through the centre from top to bottom
Hatayi rosette

Tezhip · Acrylic and alcohol-based marker on paper

2025

Three disciplines

One vocabulary, three hands

Tezhip

Manuscript illumination. Hatayi and penç motifs built up in pigment and gold, held inside a strict geometry of borders and medallions.

See tezhip →

Hüsn-i hat

Arabic calligraphy, the beautiful line. Reed and brush strokes studied through a weekly cohort, then set inside illuminated ground.

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Geometry

Compass-and-rule constructions. The star-and-polygon grids that sit underneath the floral work and give it somewhere to stand.

See geometry →

New work is posted first on Instagram, where the studio keeps a running record of pieces in progress.

@tezhip.studio

Get in touch

Interested in a piece, or in having one made?

Every piece here can be discussed privately, and new work can be commissioned to a size, text or palette of your own. Write to me and I will answer personally.

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