About Us
Husband and wife team Gökçe and Hayati started Mindful Atelier in 2020 after moving to the UK, wanting to bring together their collective skills and passions in the form of a small business.
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After visiting friends who had moved to Norfolk in 2018, they fell in love with Stiffkey and knew they wanted to make Norfolk their home. The UK Business Visa allowed them to turn that dream into reality, and they chose Holt as the perfect location for their studio and shop.
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With a background in art and wellness, Gökçe created Mindful Atelier as a space that encourages people to slow down, get creative, and feel joy.
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Her husband Hayati, whose professional background is in equine veterinary medicine, is the friendly face of their beautiful shop on Holt’s Market Place. He’s the person you’ll meet when you attend a workshop or pop in to browse their colourful shelves of ceramics. Four years on, he’s also well-versed in creating their signature “tiny houses”, and it turns out he had a natural talent for ceramics all along.
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About Gökçe
Gökçe is the founder and owner of Mindful Atelier. She has been a passionate ceramic artist for 23 years and is also a meditation and mindfulness practitioner, a qualified yoga instructor, and an animal lover.
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Her ceramics experience is the result of many years of training, study, and extensive travel. She completed her MA on “The Influence of Wabi-sabi Aesthetic on Japanese Ceramic Art” and her Ph.D. on “Religion and Clay in India.” Over the years, she has written several academic papers and taught pottery at university for more than nine years.
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Gökçe has exhibited her work both in Turkey and internationally, including in South Korea and Japan. Throughout her studies, she has always viewed working with clay as a meditative practice — one that quiets the higher mind and encourages surrender to the unpredictability of the process.
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By combining her meditation and mindfulness practices with her academic research, Gökçe’s work has evolved into a reflection of positivity, stillness, and peacefulness, expressed through organic shapes and soft colours.
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She believes in a better-designed world and creates for people who feel and believe the same way. Each handmade ceramic piece communicates that message, crafted to inspire a sense of calm and beauty.
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Her goal is to make people feel the art — to bring a moment of joy and mindfulness each time they reach for a mug, plate, or cup. All Mindful Atelier products are handmade with care and dedication, using only the finest materials.
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With love
​Gokce & Hayati
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