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.