tunisian crafts 3

Jewels And Silverware

The history of the Tunisian jewelry goes back to the paddle of the punic era from which it borrows several signs symbols and forms which are found today still in the current jewels. This secular craft industry was enriched by various contributions Roman, Byzantine, Arabic, Turkish and Andalusian who modelled in various materials the ornament of the woman of their time. Today, the distinction a long time maintained between the rural money jewel and the town gold jewel definitively grew blurred. The variety of materials used, the multiplication of the production centres and the development of the tastes stripped the jewelry of its value symbolic system to keep only its commercial value of it. Admittedly regional idiosyncracies persist and point out the origins of various ornaments but they are not any more the exclusiveness in the craftsmen of such or such area: ornaments of marriage, they evolved/moved with this institution of which the ceremonial désacralise more and more.Rihana large chain of flat gold rings, Skhab, chains of gold, money and amber.Khomsas, Kholkhals rings of ankles, the additional fibules of support of Melia, Khellas attest the variety and the wealth of these characteristics but yield gradually to the generation of very snuffed jewels: bracelets out of gold, rings in the form of rhombus encrusted with semi-precious stones or enamels, collars modernized and loops with the European one.   Currently designers and artists invest the field of the craft industry and innovate by proposing jewels of very modern invoice. Contrary to the jewelry which evolves/moves and loses its value symbolic system, Tunisian silverware, if it also loses its functions, perpetuates the same purposes and guard the same passion at the customers: ustensils of luxury, curios and accessories various furnish and decorate the modern interiors. The standard collection consists of a censer (Mabkhara) one to aspergeir (mrech) stylized poudriers, combs, shoes, boxes (Kanawita) and mirrors of toilet. The techniques of pushed back and the filigree compete of beauty and propose different menus purposes with the admiration of the collectors. This range is extended more and more to pieces of furniture, consoles, mirrors and armchairs or the art of the cabinetmaker is requested. Puffed Up Glass Glass is a very old practice deeply anchored in the cultural history of our country. The Punic ones inherited this practice their ancestors Phéniciens, to adapt it and develop it in Carthage and Kerkouane. After the decline of the Roman Empire, the Tunisian glass-makers continued to produce glass with the traditional way of blowing to the free air or in a mould. The Moslem Middle Ages see to settle in Tunisia a craft industry glass-maker which makes specific great strides following the example other countries of the Islamic East: Delicacy of the moulded and cut ornaments and especially wealth of the gilded and enamelled decorations works. The dynasties of Aghlabides, Fatimides and Zirides which sought to compete with the ostentation of the court of Baghdad, developed, as of the IX ème century a craft industry glass-maker which remains active until half of the XIV ème century which saw the elimination of blowing to the mouth with the profit of the industrial production. After an eclipse of a few centuries, glass returns to Tunisia by the effort of the National office of the craft industry which reintroduced the techniques traditionneles. The creative craftsmen took the changing and express themselves from now on in several registers which combine ancestral traditions and modern practices.