A talented enamel artist, a real master of jewelry art Ilgiz Fazulzyanov, shared his inspiration with me and talked about his work with pleasure.
Briefly about Ilgiz Fazulzyanov
Ilgiz Fazulzyanov is a famous enamel jeweler, two-time winner and Grand Prix winner at the international competition International Jewelery Design Excellence Award in the direction of jewelry design. In 2016, the Kremlin hosted a large-scale exhibition of Ilgiz’s works, which included unique jewelry masterpieces.
We are lucky, and such an amazing master, a nugget, lives among us, in Russia. It was very interesting for me to talk with Ilgiz, below is my interview. As always – please read to the end, and I look forward to your comments.
How did it all start, how did the idea of jewelry first appear?
It all started with a victory in 1994, where I received the Grand Prix at the Islamic Arts Festival in Pakistan. This was the impetus for my development in this art.
And what was this job?
I submitted the work “Salary of the Quran” to the competition, for which I received an award. This work is currently in the Turan Foundation of the Republic of Tatarstan.
That is, the work was done in an absolutely national technique?
Yes, the “Quran’s salary” was made in filigree technique with inlaid with precious stones.
How then was the idea born to make this direction the main one and develop the art of jewelry?
Having an art education, I was always looking for the direction in which I should go. After receiving this award, I decided to develop in the jewelry art.
When I already got acquainted with the works of Lalique and other French masters, I realized that the jewelry direction for me can develop not only in national traditions, but also as artistic images that we see around. And since I’m more of a painter than a graphic artist, I’ve always lacked color. And thanks to the use of enamel, I discovered a different state. I see jewelry not in graphics, but in color.
How is the stone selected?
When there is an idea, then you need to add color here. Visually, I see works in color combination. And then everything begins to gather into this work: the techniques, the color of the stones, the color of the enamel.
Stones are also selected. When the product is ready for execution, the material is selected. And it is very difficult to find the right stone, for example, opal, with its diversity.
I make a request to my suppliers for the stone that I need, and with a huge variety of offers, it can be difficult to find the right stone.
This is a whole search, like a collector who is looking for the item that he lacks in the collection. It is clear that there are classic stones, like a diamond, everything is clear here. But complex stones, with drawings, with interesting colors, this is a complex topic.
How long does it take to create one work?
The fact is that a lot of work is being done at the same time. On average, about 15 at a time. And it is very difficult to understand how much time is spent on one subject. There are things that last. For example, there is one very large job that took 2.5 years to complete.
After the completion of each work, work immediately begins with another product. I taught myself and my employees this, to work in an active mode.
Now it is impossible for an artist to be popular if he does not surprise the audience with constant novelty. It used to be possible to paint one picture for a year or two years, and that’s it. Now if you work like that, tomorrow nobody will need you. I took the production experience of Turkish masters, combined something from Chinese manufacturers, from Italians, into one whole, and it turned out such a collaboration of all the possibilities in production.
ABOUT WARRANTY
I can always guarantee the quality of enamel on jewelry. High temperature makes it possible to fuse metal and quartz glass into one whole.
For 27 years, they have never brought enamel products to me for repair due to poor quality work. A common cause of damage is the human factor.
