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Jeweler-restorer Ravkat Mukhametshin: “Traditional jewelry has a soul”
Ravkat Mukhametshin began making jewelry in 1985. Since then, he has worked as a restorer with the Museum of the History of Uzbekistan and the National Cultural Center "Kazan", and was also invited to prepare an exhibition dedicated to the 1000th anniversary of the city's foundation as part of the World Tatar Congress. Since 2013, Ravkat Mukhametshin has worked as an artist-restorer of metal at the State Art Museum of Tatarstan.
Part of the meeting was devoted to the story of the restoration work of Ravkat Mukhametshin. Thanks to his hands, this masterpiece has found a second life and is now exhibited in the best museum of the country. The meeting was moderated by Gulshat Nugaibekova, a collector and reconstructor of Tatar national costumes.
— I wanted to get involved in motorsports and become a racer. The last rally I took part in was in Donetsk, but I couldn’t find common ground with the management and decided to do something that would allow me to earn money for my car without relying on anyone. My uncle loved designer jewelry. I started doing this and soon I was earning 3-4 thousand a month. In Soviet times, that was a lot of money,” said Ravkat Mukhametshin.
The jeweler was born in Tashkent and lived there for 40 years. There he first saw Uzbek jewelry in an art gallery and was amazed at how simple and at the same time richly decorated it was.
"I make a lot of designer jewelry and it sells well, but traditional jewelry is a different world and has 'roots' that connect people with nature, spirit and ancestors. 'Traditional jewelry has a soul,'" he said.
Ravkat Mukhametshin finds inspiration in the mountains. You can't take more than you can carry and less than you need to survive. According to him, our life is one and the same journey. Therefore, it is important to find a business in which you can not only earn money, but also develop.
According to jewelers, precious stones are made up of surfaces. The most difficult task is to make the surface perfectly smooth, so in order to hide the unevenness, craftsmen began to make jewelry that later acquired a sacred meaning. Our ancestors' jewelry had other features, such as rings in the form of a cauldron with lids. Rice was thrown into it, which symbolized prosperity. Koran stands were also popular, which were worn crosswise and placed under the armpits. It was believed that the soul comes out from there after death.
"My work began with earrings. I asked permission to come to the museum and take a photo, but they only allowed me to draw it again. In the process, I found out that the basis of this decoration is the whole plot - the tree of life and the roots of ancestors," said Ravkat Mukhametshin.
— I just did something “weakly”. They showed me half a bead, broken by a heel. They told me to do it for 200 dollars. The beads are small. “It’s a two-ruble coin, but I managed it too,” he said.
Ravkat Mukhametshin considers himself a "bearer of culture". According to him, it is important to "bite and infect" people. Then he himself will find what interests him, and his task will be to try to preserve what we have for future generations of writers. He has his own ideas and plans, but the most interesting one is making traditional jewelry.
- Ravkat Azatovich is our heritage. Making jewelry is a very labor-intensive process. Modern craftsmen do not want to sit over one piece of jewelry for months. At present, Ravkat is the only company that owns the Bulgarian and Golden Horde technology for making jewelry. There is no one like him." emphasized the conference moderator Gulshat Nugaybekova.
"Everything we saw today presents Ravkat Mukhametshin as a restorer, re-creator, stylist, copyist and writer. It is important that his hands are folded professionally, that he masters all styles and all techniques. "What he does is worthy of the best museum." The results of the evening were summed up by candidate of art history Guzel Valeeva-Suleimanova.