About Gallery Honeywinter
Supplying custom-manufactured, elegantly gilded (gold, silver, or bronze/imitation), luxurious, high-quality bespoke furniture along with stylishly designed and practical decorative objects, Gallery Honeywinter serves classy excellence.
With the talent and deep experience they gained in more than fifty years, our family elders, who are true masters of their work, have been involved in many distinguished projects both in our country and abroad. With the guidance of the business, moral, and ethical manners we have inherited from them, we are proud to carry out the quality production for your custom-designed furniture in every model and custom-made household goods in line with your personal preferences and requirements in our workshops, using both traditional and modern techniques of detailed and meticulous handcrafted gilding art and workmanship.
That is why we named our brand Honeywinter, the exact English translation of our family name: Balkış
With the happiness and excitement of having implemented our online stores in various international marketplaces in 2021, we are working to improve ourselves every day by focusing on e-commerce and exports –mainly to the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, and many other overseas target countries.
If you’d like to visit our Etsy store: GalleryHoneyWinter|Etsy
Who are we?
Şükrü BALKIŞ
Having been one of the most talented and important gilding masters of Turkiye, our father, Şükrü Balkış, started his career as an apprentice engraver in an old furniture repair shop in 1964 and then continued to work with a renowned gilding master of the time. After learning the art of gilding and all its details from his master for more than 10 years and improving himself, he founded his own workshop in 1977 and grew with both his business potential and his team in the following years.
Some of the important clients and works in its portfolio are (but are not limited to):
* The Koç Family
* The Simavi Family
* Special renovation orders by many famous and important singers, actors, actresses and artists, especially between 1970 and 2000
* The general restoration project of Sait Halim Pasha Mansion which included the renovation of gilded furniture, and decoratives.
* The general restoration project for the Mabeyn Mansion in the Yildiz Palace, which included the renovation of the gilded furniture, decoratives, etc. (under the supervision of The Turkish Presidency of the Republic of Turkiye.)
FİKRİ BALKIŞ
Our uncle, Fikri Balkış, who has been working and teaching in his workshop since the early 1980s, is also one of the most talented gilding masters of our country while having other investments in different business lines and fields, too.
Some of the key clients and works in his broad portfolio include (but are not limited to):
* The gilding works of the Ciragan Palace Kempinski Hotel, Istanbul,
* The gilding works of Rixos The Palm Hotel that he has performed personally on-site in Dubai, UAE.
UFKUN BALKIŞ
Ufkun was born in 1977, in Istanbul. Having graduated from the Department of Geology at Istanbul Technical University, he started to work in the field of international trade (export sales of marble and natural stones, imports of 1st/2nd quality galvanized painted and stainless steel). Between 2005-2014, he worked at various Turkish publishing houses. Starting from the year 2014, he worked at several international firms including a Dubai-based exhibition stand design-construction company and a Spanish law firm. Most recently, along with his duty at Gallery Honeywinter, he’s been working part-time for a geothermal consultancy firm as their Business Development & EU Projects Specialist since November 2021.
To date, he’s been to Düsseldorf (Germany), Antwerp (Belgium), Paris (France), Dubai (UAE), and Kolkata (India) for business purposes. He is the author of two fiction novels published in 2008 and 2013 respectively. He also completed the Turkish-English translation and rewriting of his fiction novel The Bridge (Tur. Köprü), and self-published both the ebook and paperback editions via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing in January 2021.
SERHAT BALKIŞ
The younger one of two brothers, Serhat, was born in 1981, in Istanbul. After graduating from the Department of Tourism Operation and Travel Agency Management at Istanbul University, he completed the Department of Business Administration at Eskişehir Anadolu University. He worked for various tourism firms and corporate companies operating in different sectors for long years. In addition to his touristic trips to the Netherlands and Germany, he has also been to Italy for business purposes. He is trying to contribute to the gilding artwork which is our family business for long years now, with the priceless guidance and the tradition both our father and uncle have started. In this direction, he is with you in the gilded adventure of the Gallery Honeywinter brand which develops and grows day by day with your precious support. Thank you!
Serhat has been married since 2012. Everything he does, he does it for his loving wife, Burcu, and their lovely daughter, Naz.
