Apartment 59 m² - cul-de-sac Vakhtang Gorgasali, Batumi

Georgia is the richest country in the world. It has a generous cultural heritage and material abundance. It was on the territory of this country that the Argonauts found the golden fleece - a symbol of the highest values and prosperity.

In the ancient vaults of Georgia, many secrets are hidden that hide untold wealth. In one of the museums, specimens of an unusual minankari flaunt. Minankari or cloisonne enamel is an amazingly beautiful jewelry technique. One of the museum’s oldest products is the finest work of the master in the form of a pictorial with a bird, made even before our era.

In some Georgian houses, unusual stoves were built. They are very small and do not serve to heat housing. In these magic stoves, the long-forgotten jewelry art associated with delicate and fragile enamel is revived.

Enamel is somewhat reminiscent of glass. To get it, you need to find a quartz stone and grind it to a powder state. Dyes are added to the powder to give enamel in different shades. In the furnace fire, quartz powder melts and turns into an extraordinary substance resembling colored glass.

Covering the glass with gold or silver products, it turns out something similar to inlay. To obtain cloisonne enamel, it is necessary that the product was made of cells. The easiest way is the cells are wound from wire. The free space of the product is filled with enamel and polished well. The technology is very simple, so anyone can master it. But to achieve high artistic skill is difficult, because it requires practice, perseverance and talent.

Around the twelfth century, Minankari is experiencing its best of times. Georgia begins the heyday of cloisonne enamel. At this time, Georgian masters created the most famous work - the Hahul icon of the Mother of God. The icon is made of more than one hundred enamel plates. This work is considered the largest of all ancient similar products.

Over time, Minankari was almost forgotten and remembered about this type of art only recently. Masters decided to change the technology and began to experiment with enamel. If in ancient times only gold was used as a base, now they use a more affordable silver base. And even enamel is made without a metal base. Such a product is obtained in the form of a stained-glass window. Enamel layers are now very thin, almost transparent. In ancient times, enamel was poured with a thick layer, since they did not know how to make thin.

Enamel products so pleased not only local residents, but also tourists that serious professional workshops began to appear. With mass production, the lush growth of minankari also began. Fashion and powerful brands in their flow favored the opening of schools and workshops. Minankari began to win the minds and talents of many jewelers and artists. The art of cloisonne enamel attracts both masters and consumers with its authenticity and true Georgian spirit every year.