Unique Leather Mosaic from Kazan

Kazan leather mosaic is a unique type of leather crafting art that was developed in Kazan metro area centuries ago. The art present a sophisticated and delicate combination of the softest leather and traditional Tatar ethnic ornaments cut and stitched together by hand.

Widely popular and famous across Russia and throughout Europe and Asia in the 18 and 19^th centuries, so-called Kazan or Tatar boots crafted using the leather mosaic technique are slowly regaining
their popularity thanks to few dedicated and passionate craftsmen in the Kazan area who have been creating masterpieces until nowadays by hand.  Kazan stitch – the bonding mechanism of the technique – cannot be reproduced by a machine. There is nothing else in the world that looks and feels the same!

The art of Kazan leather mosaic has an interesting and rocky history. The period since the Soviet Union collapsed has been the hardest time for the few craftsmen left to keep the art alive. They are doing a wonderful job of preserving the art with the limited resources available to them. Much still needs to be done to preserve, revive, and popularize the art of unique Kazan leather mosaic across generations and nations.

This website www.Unique Leather Mosaic .com is aimed to:

• introduce to English speaking audience the unique authentic technique;
• protect the endangered art from disappearing by educating and supporting through potential sales, training, fundraising;
• popularize the art among younger generations and encourage them to consider it as a future career;
• find supporters in order to preserve and promote authentic tradition;
• explain the importance of preservation of authentic and endangered arts;
• introduce new places, like Tatarstan, to American audience

This website is the first attempt to summarize what is available in hard and electronic formats about the art of Kazan leather mosaic and to present it for English-speaking audience. The information on the website is gathered, translated, interpreted and arranged by a huge fan of the art of Kazan leather mosaic – Chulpan Khismatova.

I was born and raised in the city of Kazan. I find that the art of leather mosaic is not as appreciated and popular as it should be.  If you find Kazan leather mosaic as interesting, promising, and exceptional as I do, please feel free to contact me  for more detailed information about this project and anything related to leather mosaic.