Turkic | Unique Leather Mosaic of the Tatars

Have you wondered how innovative ideas are born? When something new comes up, is it an organic development or a reaction to the ever-changing reality? Do you pause to assess if innovative product is manipulating the core, the baseline, the root, the tradition? Those could be loaded questions, indeed, but they are the important ones when the goal is to preserve the original. Recent years have opened up the doors to artificial intelligence for almost everyone in the internet-empowered world. Recent months have been very active in innovating the Tatar traditional leather folk art of Kaiyly Kün.

Change is a constant variable of life. It is a powerful mechanism for innovations as well as destruction…especially in the times of upheaval…Is the natural or the artificial in charge of change control – a crucial procedure that ensures the protection of quality and core value? Whether it is an artificially generated image of boots/ bags with the distinct stitch and ornamentation, or natural manual fabrication of leather item with only one element of the technology instead of three, it is becoming harder to detect the distortion of the original core of a complex Kaiyly Kün art. It is important to pinpoint a change that may erase the value and make it unavailable in future (like once-prominent bulgari leather)….It is also essential, without a doubt, to encourage and celebrate the progressive creatives, because art is fuelled by innovations.

Here are some impressively creative innovative interpretations of centuries-old Kaiyly Kün technology. Here is one more loaded, maybe a rhetoric, question for you to ponder: Which item is complex and authentic enough to carry the core of an ancient art as well as is an excellent example of modern interpretation and innovative approach?

Kul Eşe’s multi-talented founder Mira Rahmat’s cool efforts in embellishing the public spaces with interpretive art based on traditional folk crafts of the Tatars deserve high accolades.

Kul Eşe School is dedicated to promoting and preserving the knowledge and value of manual/ hand work (it is a literal translation of kul eshe / кул эше from Tatar language) of the Tatars.

In sync, we, here, have been diligently documenting, preserving and expanding the knowledge of unique art of Kaiyly Kün. For over 15 years, we have been offering this freely accessible platform with quality, human-synthesised and researched knowledge of incredible manual Tatar heritage of complex leather mosaic. Our intrinsic motivation is clear: we want the unique leather art of the Tatars with its original integral three elements to be available for many generations and the whole world to enjoy and celebrate!

Credits go to Naılya Kumysnikova, Lusi Brand, Dina Gatina-Shafikova, Aigel Salakh, Ay.Bulgari, Sahtian, Kul Eşe, Mira Rahmat, Al Bai, Bekas, Adelina Akhmetshina

*We intentionally do not use Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools/models to generate images because our priority is a meaningful use of natural resources including electric power supply. Do you know that based on the type of the AI model, generating one image equals to

either charging one smartphone 70-200 times (0.1-0.3 kWh in light models),
or brewing water in the coffee/tea pot 5-15 times (0.3-0.7 kWh in mid-range models),
or running a refrigerator for up to 1 hour (0.7-2.0 in advanced models)?

The “saved up” energy (thanks to our intentional, meaningful approach) fuels the well-being of local marginalized communities (instead of private data centres). Those are the people who rely on their hands for living.

Human emotions present themselves regardless of time, distance, matter, subject. The strength of an emotion, though, depends mainly on internal depth of connections between self and an emotion “evoker”. For me, an acute yearning of a mother, whose children are reaching maturity and starting their independent life, is as prominent as a jaw-dropping surprise of incidental discovery of a pair of boots that carry heritage of myriads of networks that have been tying and uniting the world for centuries.

Despite of geographical distance, both pairs share similarities that tie them to one origin – the EurAsian nomadic people (Saka/Scythians) who were impressively skillful leathercrafters. The Volga Tatars of then-Russian Empire mastered the decorated leather footwear craft to the levels unprecedented – the Tatar leather mosaic technique is unique in nature. The Uyghurs of then-Turkestan utilized the knowledge of boot composition and stitching shared between the skillful Tatars and Turkic people (trading routs had been buzzing, people had been mingling for ages). But, as one can notice in the pair from Kashgar, the Uyghurs ventured in different direction when putting creativity in decorating their boots. I.e., the Uyghurs placed colored fabric cutouts on top of the leather, put embroidered elements around shin and embellished the top with the bright pompons. All those elements are common features of the leather footwear created by the people dwelling over 6,991 km (4,344 mi) away, in the areas of Northern Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, etc.).

A desire to intricately decorate the wear that protects the foot is rooted in us (impressive designs found in Pazyryk burials date back to 4th century BCE) as deeply as emotional attachment to own children. Those two unite, connect, and tie us for centuries to come.