Rustam Usmanov’s
ceramics studio is located just behind his house, next to a courtyard filled
with fruit trees, grape vines and flowers. It is here, with the help of his
son, Damier, and nephew, Ruslan, that he pro...
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Rustam Usmanov’s
ceramics studio is located just behind his house, next to a courtyard filled
with fruit trees, grape vines and flowers. It is here, with the help of his
son, Damier, and nephew, Ruslan, that he produces some of the most beautiful
ceramics in the Fergana Valley. On our visit, we looked on as Damier began the
process by kneading clay, which in Rishtan is abundant and generally
impurity-free. Then he used a pedal-operated wheel to shape a platter, a
mesmerizing technique known in English as “throwing.” Rustam told us that the
soft platter would be dried for four days at room temperature before being
dipped in a white clay mixture called “angup” and fired in a traditional kiln.
Then Ruslan would take over; it takes about 25 hours paint a large
platter and, fittingly in a country that’s such and amalgam of old and new, Ruslan
practices this ancient art while listening to Russian rap on his iPod. Finally,
the platter would be glazed. Rishtan is famous for a special kind of blue-green
glaze called “ishkor.” Made from a desert plant of the same name that’s been
burned to ash and mixed with crushed quartz, ishkor has been used since the 10th
century and the results are the lustrous, blue-hued plates and bowls that have
been coveted since the days of the Silk Road.
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