“Firoozeh Koobi”: a Persian art that shines on the world stage

Do you know iran turquoise stone? I bet you did not. Actually “Firoozeh” is the Persian name of turquoise, It is a blue Gem mined from ancient mines of east part of Iran, “ khoorasan” province.in Persian language “ khoorasan” means the land of rising son. Because in that territory the sun is rising and flushing whole empire of Persian nation by blessing of light and richness. It is the furthest corner of Iranian territory even now.

What is Firouze kob ?

 One of the latest of Iranian’s fine handicraft of contemporary society exclusively in Isfahan is “ firoozeh Koobi” , a delicate art of coating and covering of thin layer of  small tiles of pure “Firoozeh”  attached and glued on the surface of copper vessels and other instruments like vase, kitchen utensils, table settings as plates, forks, knives , ….etc., to ornament them in blue color and make them more ornamental to attract the eyes of users and raise the value of those object from quality to making more profit. The master who make this objectives of art known as “firoozeh koob”.  Blue color has a special value in Persian world. Inside the holly places like mosques, inside palaces, inside old fashion galleries and high value places, you will find out that interior and exteriors are normally covered by blue colored tiles and painting to reflect the value of water in normal life. Returning to our old history you can find the reflection of shortage of water in every corner of our life. Iran or Persia is the land of shortages of water and to compensate that in ancient world , our ancestors invented a complicated  subterranean deep water  channels named as “Qanat”, in this sophisticated system, they made thousands of kilometers of interconnected channels and deep wells to gather fresh water from  deep water reservoirs and bring them out to the surface to farming and irrigating gardens or to supply drinkable fresh water for developing villages and cities and developing metropolises like Perce police or even newer enormous cities like Isfahan and shiraz. Even today we use this system to supply vast cities like Yazd and Isfahan.in this title we talk about a famous fine art of Isfahan which today named by Iranian masters as “firoozeh Koobi “, rooted as old historical art of iran turquoise stone or “firoozeh stone” crafting more than 2500 years of history, please be with us and continue learning about “firoozeh koobi”.
From old times turquoise extracted from mines and cut and formed and polished as ornaments in small to very big pieces of Iranian handicrafts and exported to other parts of the world to bring revenue to vast country of mother land of Persian culture. Forming and cutting and polishing is a very hard and sophisticated process even today but because of the marginal benefits of the craftsmen even today “Firoozeh” and” firoozeh koobi” is a profitable art and craft and because of the reasonable price and high quality, today “Firoozeh” and “Firoozeh kooby” granted as one of pioneer profitable handicraft which has been changed the face of the market and raised this art to the highest picks of revenue and high level of quality. “Firoozeh” is one of the fabulous crafts and as a high level of quality and price between other souvenirs of Isfahan or other big cities of Iran like shiraz, Tehran and “Mashad” city exclusively. Even local tourists ask for “firoozeh” and “Firoozeh Kooby” to present to their dear relations like sisters, mothers, daughters and even their sons as rings and other Turquoise handicrafts as plate, vase, pens and other goods to souvenir as a very old tradition even today is granted as an important and never forgotten rule. May you like to know why this kind of genuine handicraft raised to this high level of art and position. Actually Iran is the land of fine arts and using small pieces of gems, wood, gold and silver is very convenient to obtain in market from very old times. Imagine even in 530 B.C, Persian craftsmen made miniature fine ornaments which even today making them is as hard as making very fine arts made by machines and new technology raised by computers and high-tech science, knowledge and art. To produce master pieces of “Firoozeh koobi”, First of all, craftsmen cut and  form very small pieces of genuine Iranian turquoise stone pieces nearly 2 to 3 millimeters length  and form them like a very thin and fine  tiny tile and mosaic them on the surface of formed copper sheets which are flat or curved and formed like vase or kitchen and table settings like utensils , forks , spoons , bowls and other  ornamental goods which will be fully covered by these pieces of blue turquoise and finished and polished in a manner you never find surface not solid or made by small pieces of stone. After that in a very hard and time consuming process the craftsman glues these gems in a uniform manner on the surface of copper or other chosen special metals in a very trustable manner. After curing and hardening the glue, a thin layer of curable polymer is added to the surface to raise shining effect of the finish and adding more resistance to the surface of the finished coating against scratches and other defects like weathering through time. After this process they wait for days to complete the curing process and achieve the highest level of the strength of the finished layer. During this time, they check and complete the finishing and in case of need they repair the covering according to their experience, sometimes they add extra layers to improve the quality of the surface or add more glue or modify the pieces of “Firoozeh” tiles, to achieve highest quality masterpiece. After that they start polishing the surface of the tiles by rotating polishing machines for hours to make a shining surface layer like a sheet of very pure clear crystal glass. In very rare occasions and according to the order of consumer they make a fair matt or transparent layer to lowering the percentage of shining reflection or they use other colors or liners between the outer line of the small tiles and make attractive liners to raise the attractiveness of the blue surface of the things they made like normal size of ornaments to very small fine arts as earing, broches, pendants … etc. During this process they fix any kind of defect and raise the quality of finish in a way that the surface shines and resembles clear fresh waters of beautiful and magnificent mountain springs of ancient and old territory of Persians in old times.

The history of Firuzeh koobi

The history of “Firoozerh Kooby” returns to the reach history of Iran and even today you can find trace of this culture on the surface of ornaments made by the hands of the contemporary craftsmen which have a flashback of their ancient craftsmen. They follow of the old tradition of their fathers and ancestor’s experiences transferred generation by generation until Today. “Firoozeh kooby “has a special position in historical Iranian art and handicrafts and every day you can find more demand from consumers in tourism industry which grows bigger and bigger in contemporary and future of the human history. Hence each time you look at a masterpiece of “ Firoozeh koobi” please kindly look deeper and remember you are not touching just a piece of Turquoise stone, It is more , more than a gem , you are touching the old Persian history you can touch, you can feel  warmness of the hands of masters of the ancient craftsmen who lived thousands years ago and you can find reach experience transferred  generation by generation through history of old Persia, each of those masters added a part or their valuable life to that piece of stone, you can touch how they thought , how they lived and how they reflect  their imaginations in their masterpieces which today fills and shines the atmosphere of our life from ordinary normal rooms to the palaces and even museums of whole world. In all continents you can find a trace of Turquoise or “ Firoozeh “ And “Firoozeh Koobi” in normal houses to top museums if you look more precise on the masterpieces of old or contemporary art of Persian territory which changed its name to IRAN today .As each art rooted to the culture of related nation, “Firoozeh” and “ Firoozeh koobi” rooted to Persian or Iranian culture , any motif you can find in every masterpiece in Persia, has a resemblance to reach culture and history of Iran, It returns to at least 3000 years of history and culture a from “Achaeminian” dynasty  to the contemporary generation of todays of Iran, each ornament or functional masterpiece has a story which should be traced by smart keen eyes of historians to reveal the reflections of old ancient masters of Persian empire which expanded form borders of India in east to the faraway territories of roman empire in west. Next time you if you decided to visit Iranian handicrafts, ask for a “Firoozeh “or “Firoozeh kooby” masterpiece not to use it just as an ornament or to use as a functional souvenir, keep in your mind that piece of stone is like a cultural container which can reflect our old human culture concentrated thousands of years in old historical territory of Persia. Touch the history first and taste our culture after.

Types of firoozeh koobi

Today if you go to our modern handicraft stores or old fashion workshops, you can find a vast spectrum of “Firoozeh” and “Firoozeh Koobi” masterpieces from fine art ornaments to very functional objects made from Turquoise stones or “Firoozeh” or turquoise pure stone. Sometimes coatings of thin layers of turquoise on copper master pieces named “Firoozeh koobi” are available and could be obtained by a very reasonable price even for a few dollars, so every need would be satisfied and each taste would be fulfilled in this competitive market. Today you can find a vast majority of products in this field, from small pieces of firoozeh koobi jewelry, like earrings, rings, pendants, broches to very functional items as table setting like   firoozeh koobi dish, forks, spoons, salt shakers, pepper shakers are available in a competitive price. Some other ornamental objects like statues, jewelry boxes, frames or firoozeh koobi Panel and other ornamental things made from solid stones of Turquoise are available to buy and other products covered by Turquoise stones known as “Firoozeh kooby” are made in vast spectrum of design , color,  price, models and quality are made and available in market to satisfy every customer interested to the art and culture of old Persia and country of Iran today.“ Firoozeh kooby “ would be a very profitable choice as investment in future .As during the time the value of precious stones would  be raised, while you are enjoying your valuable and precious choice, you can count on your profit in future and save your money as a wise decision.
Next time you visit Iran or an Iranian handicrafts workshop, We wish you choose “ Firoozeh and Firoozeh koobi “ as your precious souvenir to surprise your dears and satisfy their desires.
( sana Persian tour and travel service provider group)