Isfahan Minakari: A Fusion of Art and Culture

When you visit Isfahan, you will experience a city like the old fairy tales of Alibaba and Sindbad, Old fashion building and mosques, old fashion eastern churches, old handicraft stores and genuine bazaars, workshops and small sweet factories, jewelry stores surrounded by people and you will be lost in history. Among all enormous varieties of handicrafts, enamel or vitreous enamel has a special place in the life and heart of Isfahan and Iranian arts. You can find enamels in ordinary houses to palaces and high class people and even among monarchies. You can find vitreous enamel in every corner of our houses. minakari is an everlasting art, it does not crack, it is genuine and all the motifs stay on the surface for a thousand years. May you ask me why? Is simply answer because enamel is another word for glass, in Persian old language mina is another name for glass, actually mina is a coat of material which will be burned in furnace around 700 degrees to make a transparent layer of glass form of a solution and protect the colors and motifs that made under layer the coating.

Time traveling with mina: From Ancient Persia to Today

Minakary designs and motifs are as old as Iranian culture. You can find minakari in ordinary table settings to ornamental jewelry like earrings, rings, broaches, …etc. sometimes minakari added beauty to other utensils, even tools, cutleries and beauty tools. minakari art design is so vast and numerous that finding designs exactly like each other is not possible even in the personal collection of a producer or craftsman. Sometimes the motifs are so delicate that even with today's technology, it is too hard to make a replica of old fashioned enamels.

Step by step with Mina , from basics to artistic subtleties

In normal situations the craftsmen use a vitreous enamel paint as the final layer to protect the painting under the last layer. After burning this layer in hot furnace this pure vitreous enamel paint fuses together and make a very thin transparent glass like layer that even by sand paper you cannot scratch it and you will be shocked if you see after a fire the enamel lasts untacked and remains healthy because it experienced hot temperatures as 700 centigrade degrees during production process.
You can use enamel on each kind of metal from copper to gold, copper is more convenient to make vases , cups , plates or other functional utensils. Copper is more flexible and ductile, it can be formed in the best way, you can form them simply and during the fusing process it tolerates all stress made from cold to hot burning process. On the other hand you can use gold in the gold meenakari process to make jewelry and very expensive vases or plates for the court of the kings and kings dynasty.
Minakary has a vast domination not just in one country but in other countries you can find it. For instance in Pakistan and India they have a special kind of pink minakari  named as gulabi meenakari art which was imported from Iran in Mughals era and now is a dominant form and culture in India, Pakistan and around neighbors. meenakari  painting design is vast and colorful, meenakari painting design is as different as design of rugs, carpets, tiles, inlaid …, meenakari painting on plate is another form and design used in minakari production. meenakari painting design makes the final production not only numerous in form and motifs but also make it possible to produce millions of forms and designs which will satisfy everyone's taste and desires.
The craftsman first of all makes a circle of copper metal sheet and forms it to make a vase, a cup or some three dimensional form. Sometimes they make different forms and attach them to form the final shape. After that stage they clean the surface and use a white or light color layer on the surface. This color can be natural or artificial.

Today most of the craftsmen use artificial color because it is more convenient and you can find a rainbow of the colors in the market, the natural colors are limited to few colors and working with them is not as simple as the other one. Mostly the master use different layers of color on each other and each time they bake it in furnace, sometimes the use 5 to 6 layers to reach the desired maturity of color and strength of the layer, after this stage our master start to make a design and pattern suitable for the shape and form of the object, he or she uses fine brush and chosen color and starts to make a beautiful painting which lasts hours and hours to dry.

They use different colors but normally the blue color is more accepted. Persians used blue to resemble skies and water. Iran is a land of drought; we have shortage of water even today. By bringing blue color in our homes, we bring peace and blessing, we bring silence and abundance to our life. Although we prefer blue color but you can find other colors too, black, green, red … are the other colors and dyes you can find in Minakari, after curing and hardening the master uses one or more clear layers of mina on the surface. This coating will protect the design and all layers together. This layer is so thin and crystal clear that you can see it and after touching you understand how slippery and glossy that layer is. All of these stages should be precise and the master controls every layer. The metal which is used should be very pure and well hammered and formed unless during the baking in the furnace the surface of enamel would not be perfect. if the surface of metal is not solid enough you can see defects on the final surface and the product would be ruined and melt down again.

Fortunately, today most of the masters are so expert that even with precise instruments you cannot find any defect in the final production and most of the objects made are good enough to put them in the showcase and solid enough to live hundred and hundred years. Most of the Minakary products and objects have the ability to be used as ornaments or a functional object. For instance, a Minakary dish can be hung on the wall as an ornament or can be used as a normal dish. But the quality of Minakary is so high and sometimes it is so delicate and expensive that today most of the works are used as an ornament and luxury object and in most places they are used as a collection or decorative object. Mostly we use Minakari objects in our showcase and protect them in a proper manner.
On the other hand We have Minakari on gold and silver as on ornament pendant, earring, broach, Medallions, ring … which the colors of Mina or enamel add more decorative and beauty to the normal pure gold or silver and add more value to the final product. Minakari is more convenient on silver and copper because both of them are colorful, malleable and easy to shape, more attractive and meanwhile they are cheaper than gold and related alloys. Minakary on gold and silver is harder and needs more talent, so most of the goldsmiths first shape the gold first and after that a minakar talented master puts the colors as dyes and after baking in furnace and finishing, return it to the goldsmith to finalize the production.

There are some goldsmith masters who make the Minakary himself but this industry is so complicated that many of them chose to hire another expert to finish the job in a proper way. Most of the dyes used in this matter are metal salts that after purifying mix by resins and other additives that is secret for the master and by using very fine brushes which normally made but fine hairs of male cats, they make their own miracle and they make very complicated designs which many people imagine these geometric designs are made by computers and printed on the objects.

But it is not trough. The Persian astronauts and geometrics and mathematicians were so perfect in geometry that most of these designs were invented by them and after them transferred to other craftsmen generation by generation until today. Some of those designs are so complicated and precise that they blow our minds in a way unconsciously we buy in at a glance without thinking of price or functionality and just to have that.

Today you can find a vast variety of Minakari products in the market or even you can order your own designed object fully prefabricated to your desire. We have had thousands of masters in the past that today you can find their signature on the corners of each product but there are many contemporary masters today that the quality of their products is as good as the past and We know hundred years later the next generation will follow their fathers and this craft will last forever. Next time you want to buy a present for your dears , Do not forget to visit an Iranian handicrafts workshop and ask for an enamel for Minakari from the shopkeeper.

( sana Persian tour and travel service provider group)