The silver thread of Surkhandarya: Uzbekistan’s artisans return to the workshop

Marjona Shodmonova shapes silver into motifs once worn by Silk Road brides, part of a movement of artisans reclaiming their heritage. From the restored brick domes of Tashkent to the workshops of the south, more than 35,000 makers are returning to the hand-crafting methods of their ancestors.

In the historic Okhun Gozar neighbourhood of Tashkent, a similar focus on the human hand takes place within the walls of a restored 18th-century mosque. Under its original brick domes, Saidaziz Ishankhojaev oversees a space where wood carvers and ceramicists work beside one another. This initiative, supported by the Art and Culture Development Foundation, serves as a living bridge between the archived past and the working present.

During the 20th century, these regional traditions were frequently lost to the machinery of state-run factories, where mass production and synthetic materials replaced the individual eye. Since the 1990s, however, families have begun to reopen their private workshops, choosing to return to the slow, precise methods of their grandparents. This shift is supported by a national guild that provides tax exemptions for those who maintain these traditional techniques.

Far to the west in Nukus, the potter Gulnora Guvenova works with the earth itself to revive a tradition once connected to the Silk Road. A single plate, depicting a caravan crossing the desert, requires weeks of labor. The clay is shaped, dried, and fired, then painted with mineral colors before returning to the heat.

It is a process that refuses to be hurried, much like the traditional suzani embroideries of the region, which often contain a single, intentionally unfinished section. This small gap in the silk thread is a quiet acknowledgment that human work is never truly complete, and that there is always room for the next generation to add their own stitch to the fabric of the country.