Refikadan

About Refikadan

We are a group of likeminded people who believe that a country and its people’s happiness and tranquility depend on their ability to stay self-sufficient at every front, especially in production of goods. My family of leather craftsmen kept this idea close to the chest for over 300 years and passed down most precious secrets of their trade. Unfortunately though, times are changing and they are changing for the worse. In today’s ever-moving automatized world where manpower is becoming obsolete by the day, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for traditions to stay relevant and protected. From 2000 to 2010, 10 ateliers and factories were forced to shut down because of automation alone. We thought if I can help my family’s craftsmanship legacy preserved and if we can help spill this over to these other traditional techniques, it would be our duty to do so. So, we established Refika’dan in 2013. At Refika’dan, protecting our history is both our guide and goal to help craftspeople add on and flourish with their traditions that have been passed down to them over the past hundreds of years. Since our dedicated entry to the market, enamel has once again become popular with many new ateliers opening up, so much so that Turkey has recently become a primary exporter of enamelware to the US, EU and many other regions. We managed to do this by successfully modernizing traditional approach to enamel design, making them more user friendly and approachable.

As some of the most passionate tea drinkers, we did not stop there. We thought that tea is certainly more delicious when drank hot and from a tiny-necked glass, but it’s not practical to always have to refill it every few minutes, so as a tea drinker and lover of tea culture, I thought we should remedy the problem. So, we designed the now highly sought after ‘Gönlübol’ tea glass.

Following Gönlübol’s success, we thought of something more ambitious. Designed with the unique chopping techniques used in a traditional Turkish kitchen in mind, it was heavily influenced by the Santoku of Japan and European classical chef’s knife to bring life to Turkey’s first chef knife. This project was made possible with the help of Pirge family, an industry titan with 6 generations of experience in edge tool making since 1879. Their knowledge and craftsmanship make them to become constituent of master of edge tool makers.

Refika’dan was established by a group of passionate people who saw the ever-changing world and decided that they can do something that will last in it. Everything you will see in our store has a purpose and beautiful backstory to them.