Syrian breaks monotony of camp life with pencil carving

ZAATARI CAMP — A boring routine pushed Syrian refugee Tariq Mohammad Hamdan to revive a bygone hobby of his at Zaatari refugee camp: pencil carving. 

Hamdan has been very passionate with carving since his early childhood in Daraa in Syria. 

However, the fatigue of performing the same work routine prompted him to take his hobby to a new level and start carving artwork on pencils. 

The 43-year-old said he has always been a fan of carving on any material he could find, including wood, gypsum and paintings. 

“At the beginning, I was reluctant to do it because of the lack of equipment. But, later, I started inventing my own basic material to be able to do carving on pencils,” he recounted.  

Hamdan decided to make use of his talent to shed light on the issues and challenges experienced by his fellow Syrians. 

“I like to highlight the situation in Syria and the plight of children and what they suffer back home. I really want to bring the world’s attention to the people being killed in Syria,” he said.  

The carving process takes Hamdan a long time to finish, with some works taking up to days to be completed. 

“Sometimes, the work gets damaged in the middle of the process but I do not give up. I am always determined to finish my work,” he noted. 

Although there is a variety of support for Hamdan to carve on, he chose pencils because “it is easy to deal with”.

“I used to carve to entertain myself but, recently, when my friends told me about exhibitions I started exhibiting my work in these events,” he explained.  

Hamdan said that, although people perceive this kind of work as difficult to master, he is happy to continue working on improving his skills and developing his hobby.