Takhmina Nazarova is one of the few girls who chose to learn hand-made carpet weaving as her profession. She lives in Istaravshan and is a third year student at a college of folk crafts, which has been operating in the city for 11 years.
Takhmina was introduced to college by her grandmother, who is sure that this decorative and applied art will live for many more centuries, by being handed down from generation to generation and developing. Takhmina learns to weave carpets, tapestries and rugs. Her works are never repeated, she tries to master the craft, absorbing all the nuances as much as possible.
“I design the patterns myself, but often I resort to history. For example, last year I did my work in Scandinavian style, but this year I’m interested in Byzantine patterns.” says the blonde craftswoman. Her blonde hair passed from her Russian great-grandmothers. “The color coordination is of great importance in carpets. College is where I learned how to choose the right color scheme.”
Takhmina says that first you create a sketch of the carpet and develop a scheme on the graph paper based on which the carpet is knitted. Takhmina draws inspiration from books. The girl loves to read, especially historical novels in which she sees pictures of her future works.
“Tapestries can now be used not only as a carpet with a woven pattern,” says Takhmina. “For example, tapestries on car covers, tablecloths, bedspre
ads and towels will look very fashionable. It’s original and unusual. Thus, you can create a unique style of your home from simple things.”
The girl plans to connect her future with this craft. She dreams of working for a charity organization that helps hard-luck women. It is through hand carpet weaving that she wants to help restore their inner balance by teaching them this ancient skill.
“For me personally, carpet weaving is mentally relaxing,” the girl says. “Doing this I can detach myself, be diverted and think of nothing, diving head
long into this work. Through art one can get off day-to-day hassles for a while.”
According to Takhmina hand-made carpet weaving nowadays is not such a relevant activity. Hand-made carpets take a long time to knit, unlike machine-made carpets, and cost a lot.
“Unfortunately, there are few people in our country who wants to do this work,” says Takhmina. “More often such carpets are of interest to tourists only. When I entered college, there were ten of us, now only six of us left. Our group is the smallest of all.”
Nevertheless, the girl is confident that this type of craft, in spite of everything, will live on and develop. By absorbing modern design elements, handmade Tajik carpets will remain a unique ancestral heritage.
“For me personally, carpet weaving is mentally relaxing, Doing this I can detach myself, be diverted and think of nothing, diving headlong into this work. Through art one can get off day-to-day hassles for a while.”
Takhmina Nazarova
