Rishtan is famous for Uzbekistan’s ubiquitous cobalt and green pottery, with a staggering 90% of the ceramics seen in the country’s souvenir shops having been made in the city.
We visited the Ceramic Workshop and Museum of Rustam Usmanov and were told that the reason the pottery is so special is because if uses local clay, which is so pure, additives are not needed. One of the artisans demonstrated making a simple pot at a foot-kicked pottery wheel before we went into a workshop. Here two people were carefully drawing freehand the intricate outline of a flower design on a mug which would be later coloured in using dyes and quartz from the surrounding the mountains. When we saw a huge volume of clay pots which had been fired and were waiting to be glazed and decorated, it was hard to believe they would all be done by hand, although we were assured they would be. Finally in the showroom museum we found beautiful bowls, with and without lids, and plates of all sizes in fabulous colours and geometric and floral designs. However, as we didn’t think it was a good idea to carry delicate pottery around for the rest of our tour, we didn’t enquire about the prices.
We were then offered a choice of visiting the workshop of Aliser Nazirov who produced similar items but with different patterns, or factory-made ceramics and we chose the latter for contrast. At Mingboshi Ceramics we had to wear blue plastic overshoes before entering the huge showroom. Here the designs were much more flamboyant and colourful with golden eagles, birds and other animals, but we found them a little garish, although I suspect they were much cheaper.
