Traditional Stained Glass Painting Workshop with Certificate

The art of stained glass (vitray) in Turkish tradition

Coloured glass has lit the great buildings of Istanbul for centuries. The Ottoman mosques of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from the Süleymaniye to the Blue Mosque, use hundreds of windows filled with coloured glass set in plaster tracery, a technique known in Turkish as revzen, so that the light inside shifts from blue to amber as the sun moves. Later, Ottoman mansions and nineteenth-century palaces on the Bosphorus adopted European-style vitray, with lead lines and painted glass. The workshop opens with a short, friendly talk on this history and on how glass painting differs from classic leaded stained glass: instead of cutting and joining pieces, you paint transparent colours directly onto a glass panel and draw the dark outlines that mimic lead.

The instructor explains the materials, the way colours behave when light passes through them and how to layer tones. This is a stained glass workshop in Istanbul for beginners: no drawing experience is needed, and every step is demonstrated before you try it yourself.

The studio in Sirkeci and the painting session

The workshop takes place in a small art studio in the Hoca Paşa quarter of Sirkeci, the old commercial district between the Spice Bazaar and Gülhane Park, served by the Sirkeci tram stop and the Marmaray station. After meeting on Ankara Street you are taken to the studio and seated at a shared worktable with your own panel, brushes and paints. You choose a design, often a tulip, a carnation, a geometric star or an arabesque drawn from Iznik tiles and Ottoman windows, and pick your palette with the instructor's help.

The heart of the session is the painting itself: tracing the outlines, filling the segments with translucent colour and learning how to keep edges clean and tones even. With at most ten people in the room, the instructor corrects brush technique and suggests colour combinations. Children aged three and over can take part with an adult, which makes this one of the most popular creative things to do in Istanbul with kids.

Tea break, framing and your certificate

Midway through the three hours the studio pauses for a break in the Turkish manner: tulip-shaped glasses of black tea or small cups of Turkish coffee, water and a plate of handmade baked cookies, all included. It is an easy moment to chat with the instructor and other travellers about Istanbul, about where to go next and about the city's craft traditions, from the tile makers of Iznik to the glassblowers of Beykoz.

Once the paint has set, your panel goes into a frame so that it is ready to hang in a window at the end of your trip. The instructor shows you how to clean and display painted glass and how to pack it safely for the flight. You also receive a verified certificate of participation, a nice touch for students and for anyone collecting creative experiences on their travels. Everything you made is yours to keep; nothing is sold or pushed at the end.

Sirkeci and the old city around the workshop

Sirkeci is a good base for a creative afternoon because so much of historic Istanbul is within walking distance. The famous terminus of the old railway from Europe stands a few steps away, with its brick-and-stone facade and small railway museum; the Spice Bazaar and the New Mosque are five minutes downhill towards Eminönü, where the ferries to Kadıköy and Üsküdar leave; and Gülhane Park, the former outer garden of Topkapı Palace, is on the other side of the tram line. Sultanahmet Square, the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are about a fifteen-minute walk uphill, or two tram stops.

Our Istanbul team suggests booking the 12:00 session and spending the morning in Sultanahmet, or the 15:00 session after lunch around the Spice Bazaar, where halal street food such as fish sandwiches and stuffed mussels is everywhere. Either way, the workshop fits neatly into a day in the old city without any transport worries.