The Atelier
Gerra was born from Istanbul’s long tradition of working metal. In a country where the craft of casting and forming metal goes back centuries, a small group of artists and designers began asking a quiet question: what happens when investment casting meets a strong figurative language?
The answer was a chess set cast in stainless steel, each piece a figure drawn from Greek mythology, made by a technique that has existed for three thousand years, in a material that will outlast its owner. Over time, a full atelier grew around that first question, and our range grew far beyond mythology.
The Craftspeople
The hands behind Gerra have decades of experience in investment casting. The journey from wax model to ceramic shell to poured metal is one they relive with each new piece. A craftsperson stays with each piece through every step, leaving the mark of their own labour on its surface.
Every Gerra piece, wherever it ships, passes through this same care in Istanbul.
The Founding Narrative
Gerra was founded in Istanbul in 2019. The name comes from Sumerian: the deity of copper and bronze work, and of fire itself. The choice was not accidental. Metal is transformation.
Our first series was dedicated to seven figures of Greek mythology: Zeus, Ares, Athena, Hera, Aphrodite, Apollo, and Hephaestus. But that was only a beginning; the atelier soon opened into a much wider world of objects, from chess sets to bottle stoppers, pipe accessories to bespoke commissions.
Today the collection isn’t limited to mythological figures: chess sets, pipe accessories, and bottle stoppers, across a wide range; we also cast bespoke commissions for other companies, from aircraft to city skylines, bringing whatever figure they have in mind to life through investment casting. Each piece is produced in small numbers, slowly, and with care.
“Stainless steel resists time, we cast every piece to do the same.”
— Founder