TO SAVE AND TO ENRICH

All tourist routes in Azerbaijan lead to the Sheki Fortress, Sheki Khans' Palace, ancient caravanserais... Nestled in the lap of the Caucasus mountains, the Yukhary Bash State Historical and Architectural Reserve is the most favourite tourist destination, where the globetrotting travellers can revisit history, learning a lot of interesting things about the Great Silk Road, and even enjoy siting on the throne of medieval rulers. Down below is a wonderful view of the ancient city of Sheki hosting a multitude of houses and other buildings with tiled rooftops. After an informative and fascinating excursion around the reserve, you can taste a hard-boiled and nutritious lamb soup, piti, served in exclusive clay pots, and delicious Sheki baklava with flavoured Azerbaijani tea.

But Sheki can fascinate the guests not only with ancient monuments, beautiful nature and rich cuisine. Its silk, ceramics and colourful stained glass windows, shebeke, are widely known around the world. One can hardly imagine a tourist who would not buy a silk headscarf, kelaghai, pottery and other local souvenirs in Sheki. Now the tourists can also watch the work of local artisans without travelling long distances.

Pottery, statues, souvenirs...

Officially opened in late October by President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva, ABAD Centre for Ceramics and Decorative Art is next to the exit from the Khan's Palace, in the 19^th century building, which is one of the five old barracks built inside the fortress. Prior to reconstruction by Pasha Holding, which also provided the centre with all the necessary equipment and opened new jobs for the masters of pottery and other types of decorative art, the building had been in a miserable state unsuitable for exploitation. Not only can the artisans produce and sell their products now, but also they can teach the secrets of the craft to the younger generation.

Curator of the centre, artist Mir Teymur Mammadov is known far beyond Azerbaijan. He has travelled half of the world with his lectures and master classes. Foreign tourists visiting Baku are frequent guests at Mir Teymur's house in the Old City, with a façade decorated with various ceramic items. Now the master enjoys teaching young people at the Sheki Centre for Ceramics and Decorative Art.

“This is the only such centre in the South Caucasus, may be even in Europe. Thanks to the goodwill of the President and the First Lady, completely new approaches in social programs are applied in Azerbaijan. This means that the locals can now preserve their traditions and earn for living,” Mir Teymur Mammadov said.

Recently, a new land plot has been made available for the construction of a sculpture park, a kind of open-air museum for modern creative sculpture.

An important feature of the Centre for Ceramics and Decorative Art is that only local clay is used here. “This is our principle. Azerbaijan has a huge stock of clay varieties, 98 of 128 types of clay in different colours. Each colour indicates the type of oxides in the clay. It is well known that the Azerbaijani soil contains the entire periodic table of chemical elements,” Mir Teymur Mammadov said.

How does the clay turn into dishes and souvenirs? Without going into technical details, it is enough to mention that the centre uses five local grades of clay simultaneously. It is also planned to add two more types of clay to this mix. Initially, the technicians mix the clay and pump the paste through the pipes into a strainer. After filtration, the liquid clay, or the casting slip, is put into different moulds ready for shaping by the skilled masters.

“I have been working with gypsum for many years. But it is not a long-standing type of a material. I have long wished to learn how to work with clay. Now ABAD has made it possible for us. This is our chance to be creative in art and earn money for our families,” sculptor Vahid Elimov said.

In general, the centre provides jobs for about forty residents of Sheki.

Ancient traditions

In the mid-19^th century, Sheki ceramics took one of the first places at the international exhibition in Vienna. But the traditions of ceramic crafts in Azerbaijan go back even further. “Sheki, Ganja, Oghuz, Gabala... The pottery kilns have been built in Gabala since the 6^th century BC. Traditionally, pottery making, or ceramics, has been known as a trade of autochthonous, sedentary peoples. Azerbaijanis have always been making ceramics. To succeed, one needs to know the land, wind rose, location to build the kiln, direction of the chimney, types of wood and water (alkaline or acidic) used in the production in that particular area,” Mir Teymur Mammadov shared some secrets of his craft.

The system of building pottery kilns is a huge culture known to Azerbaijanis since ancient times. According to Mammadov, a large number of such kilns remained under the Mingachevir Reservoir during its construction. But their drawings are still available at the Hermitage Museum in Russia. Gabala also has a magnificent collection of pottery kilns.

In short, the traditions are ancient and the potential is huge. We only need to save and to enrich these traditions. The Sheki Centre for Ceramics and Decorative Art is the first symbol of this noble cause. It is also planned to open another centre in the village of Nardaran near Baku.

“We are constantly moving forward to make sure that such centres are operating nationwide, which will help to revive national traditions in each region. After all, each region has its own traditions, ornaments, and methods for processing ceramic products,” the master explained.

To make the history of crafts survive, the traditions must be passed on from mouth to ear constantly. Sometimes tourists are surprised to see a 15-year-old girl among the students of the Centre, who is watching raptly the hand moves of her master. No need to be surprised, as it was a woman who had laid the foundation for pottery making. “The first shards of pottery ever discovered in the world are 18 thousand years old, and they have hand prints of women on them. The men had no time for making dishes as they had been hunting mammoths. The women used to collect berries, grass, and accidentally invented ceramics as they had been communicating with the earth,” Mir Teymur Mammadov said.

“I love sculpting, and when I heard about that centre in Sheki, I came here after the school to learn how to make pottery,” Farida Rasulova, who is going to enter the Academy of Arts, said.

According to her mentor, Farida Rasulova is a very promising student, like her other mates learning at the Sheki Centre for Ceramics and Decorative Art.

Happy tourists

The centre uses the state-of-art equipment, such as the electric-driven potters made in Japan. It is also planned to use the mechanical ones operated with foot and hands, since the tourists are interested in them. They can come in, watch the production, and have all their questions answered. Despite the short period of operation, tourists show a great interest in the centre.

Yelizaveta Yakovleva and Roza Filippova are doctors from Yakutia, Russia. They came to the Naftalan Resort (Azerbaijan) for treatment. But they thought that it was worth visiting Ganja, Sheki and Baku as well. “We really like it here, everything is so comfortable, we get all the pleasures of life. There are many good hotels here, like the one we booked online. We are absolutely happy with what we have seen so far,” Yelizaveta Yakovleva said.

“We have sent a bunch of photos to our relatives and friends. They are fascinated with what they saw and also want to come here,” added Roza Filippova. The guests then went to the ABAD Ethno Boutique operating inside the centre.

By the way, there is also a carpet weaving room next to the boutique. Oksana Majidova and Yegana Gulahmedova have been weaving carpets for more than ten years. As their old workshop was closed, the masters had to engage in made-to-order business. But selling custom carpets in the market is not an easy task. That's when the ABAD centre came to help the masters. Now the ladies can weave and teach the younger generation.

The main objective of the ABAD centres is to support family businesses by preserving and transmitting traditions to future generations.

Brief reference

Legal entity of public law, ABAD (Simplified Support for Family Business), was established under the ASAN Service in 2016 pursuant to the relevant presidential decree. ABAD provides financial, legal and other assistance to family businesses in the field of arts and crafts and food production, providing families with specially equipped containers for production and other conditions, as well as helping with branding, packaging, logistics and marketing of products.

As of today, ABAD supported more than 320 families engaged in arts, various crafts and food production.

ABAD is a network of regional centres. ABAD Ethno Boutiques operating in tourist destinations in various districts of Azerbaijan and Baku help promote the sales of products.