AlaCraft 2025: Steeped in Steppe culture

Vicki Mason

19 December 2025

Vicki Mason and Layla Walter – South Pacific Exhibit at AlaCraft, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Vicki Mason wanders through the hidden workshops of Almaty, tracing the silver threads and ancient talons that weave Kazakhstan’s nomadic heritage into contemporary jewellery.

Owl’s talons, antique horseshoes and a sand collection – I love visiting fellow makers’ workshops, especially jewellers, as I never know what I might see, hold and learn. The shared language of making bound me to two fellow jewellers I met recently in Almaty, Kazakhstan, who kindly opened their workshops to me and took time out to talk shop. These visits happened as a result of my participating and exhibiting work in the inaugural AlaCraft International Craft Festival in Almaty.

The city hosted this event as it celebrated being awarded the title of World Craft City by the World Crafts Council. The accolade acknowledges a city’s commitment to its craft heritage and traditions, while also fostering innovation. World Craft Cities support creative economies, sustainable development, and support craftspeople through connecting them to global networks. I travelled to Almaty with glass artist Layla Walter from New Zealand to represent the South Pacific. We showed work alongside local master craftspeople, makers from Kazakhstan’s neighbouring countries, as well as a handful of artisans from further afield. A fashion show, musical performances, craft demonstrations and an accompanying exhibition featuring the work of Almaty craft masters held at the Kasteyev Museum rounded out the festival.

I was curious to know about my two new jewellery friends’ training and work, while also hoping to get a sense of the ecology of the jewellery scene in Kazakhstan. Conversations revealed an immensely diverse jewellery landscape. Dulat Ashimov spoke about a huge range of styles and types of works co-existing in Kazakhstan compared to other Central Asian countries. State of the art works sit side-by-side with very traditional jewels. Jewellers work for large companies while others work as studio jewellers, making bespoke or limited edition works as well as collections of repeatable designs.

Dulat Ashimov and Vicki Mason in Dulat’s workshop

Contemporary art jewellery is somewhat new to the country. There are no specialist galleries from what I could see, and Dulat said a market for art jewellery doesn’t exist as yet. This will no doubt change as the Syldyr initiative gains momentum, a project pioneered by Zhanna Assanova with the goal of bringing contemporary art jewellery to Kazakh audiences. One of her exhibitions was featured recently in an article by Elena Karpilova on Art Jewelry Forum’s website and listed Kazakh makers working with contemporary themes, while also outlining the history and development of modern jewellery in this fascinating country. It was interesting to read of only one jeweller having studied outside the country, something echoed in the conversations with my new friends. Both Dulat and Aizhan Tlenbekova talked about the fact that they often learn from one another, sharing techniques and skills, and hosting each other in their own workshops.

Dulat Ashimov, Kozhe, 2020, ring in agate, acrylic, 8 x 6 cm, photo: Kamilla Barysbekova

Dulat studied at the Kazakh National Academy of Arts in Almaty, completing a 4-year bachelor’s degree where he studied under master jeweller Serzhan Bashirov. The course offered a blend of workshops focusing on traditional and modern techniques, and, depending on the teacher, students might make final year works based on ancient Kazakh jewels or work to find their own voice in bringing a more modern interpretation to themes explored. Dulat does commission work and a wide range of projects, from designing metal drawer knobs for a coffee franchise through to making exhibition work in both traditional and contemporary styles. In 2024, he was part of a Syldyr exhibition with a striking work titled Kohze. Fascinated by materials, he cuts his own stones and draws inspiration from Kazakh shamanism. It was in Dulat’s workshop that Layla and I got to hold the owl’s talons, which are symbols of power and strength and are used in amulets to hold these qualities for protection and guidance.

Aizhan came to jewellery later in life after other training. After buying a jewel by respected master jeweller Ilya Kazakov, she jumped at the chance to work with him when a space in his workshop opened up. Aizhan prefers working with silver, a metal revered in Kazakh culture for its purifying and magical properties. She wants to work more with horse, sheep and goat hair as well as shashaks, the decorative tufts and tassels seen in Kazakh rugs and textiles that are used to ward off bad spirits and imbue items with protective qualities. Aizhan is interested in the women who make rugs and work with wool in Kazakh culture. This work is hard physical labour, and honouring the tradition of this work, and these women are a topic she wants to explore.

A gifted storyteller, Layla and I were totally captivated and mesmerised by Aizhan’s fairy tale “Why Are the Spruce Branches Thicker on One Side?”, the first part of a trilogy titled “The Zerger Girl”. This story inspired her piece, Belt for a Kazakh national skirt, “beldemshe”. A zerger is a jeweller in Kazakhstan, and jewellery as an art form is deeply embedded in Kazakh culture. Full of symbols, most Kazakh jewellery is worn for protection against evil and harm. It serves as a cultural chronicle, playing a crucial role in social customs and relationships, and it is passed through family lines.

Nomadic traditions and Kazakh stories are alive and well, embedded deeply in the jewellery and crafts I saw – but they are also moving and morphing to reflect new concerns. The tales shared, the objects I saw and held, and the kindnesses I experienced are profoundly etched in my mind’s eye.

Vicki would like to thank the Union of Artisans of Kazakhstan and its members, Almaty’s Tourism Department and the other organisations and people who hosted her, as well as all those who made her time in Almaty so meaningful. Thank you.

Congratulations, Almaty, on becoming a World Craft City.

Vicki Mason ✿ A jeweller of the shared garden

✿ Vicki Mason’s work reflects the preciousness of our shared natural world. As an Australian Pākehā, she moved from Aotearoa/New Zealand to Australia, bringing with her a deep appreciation of whenua,

✿

Below is text from Aizhan Tlenbekova.

Felt Master’s Belt

Aizhan Tlenbekova, Felt Master’s Belt, 2025, 925 sterling silver, turquoise and coral, leather, and handmade felt elements. Belt: length 95 cm, width 6 cm. Scissor pouch: length 25 cm, width 9 cm. Needle pouch: length 10 cm, diameter 5 cm.

During our ethnographic expedition to Kyzyl-Orda, observing the close-knit community of Kazakh felt artisans, I tried to create a fairy tale. About how long ago in the Steppe, two girls grew up in the same village, neighbours, two inseparable friends. Their parents built yurts next to each other, and they would visit each other. One grew up with her grandparents, a zerger (jeweller), as she lost her parents early. The other grew up in a bustling, large family of felt artisans, as everyone there, from young to old, was involved in felt making.

As they grew, so did their skill and craft, passed down through generations. Then the time came when suitors from all corners of the Steppe began to woo the two craftswomen. Out of love and agreement, they were betrothed, and they began preparing for their farewell and departure from their native village. As a token of friendship, a lasting memory, the kizshi girl made a beautiful tekemet from snow-white felt and gave it to her friend with the words: “May this carpet witness the happiest moments of your married life! May your future children and grandchildren run across it! May it be a symbol of your life—’ak zhol’!” (Ak zhol means bright path.) And the zerger girl prepared a leather belt for her friend, decorated with silver and featuring all the necessary pouches and pendants. And placing it on her friend’s wedding waistcoat, she said: “I want everyone in the new village to know that not just a kelin has entered their home! But that prosperity and goodness have come to them in the form of a kizshi craftswoman! May you wear it with pride and may it protect you from all evil!”

And so the young craftswomen scattered in different directions across the Steppe, and their friendship lasted a long, long time. They’ve lived through much, and now even their grandchildren and great-grandchildren remain on earth, but the fame and legend of their female friendship has passed down through the centuries to this day. Female friendship is beautiful when it’s reflected in the eyes of the beholder—Beauty!

Fairy tale

Why are the branches of a fir tree thicker on one side?

Once upon a time, there was Mergen (a hunter) who lived at the foot of the mountains with his wife and two children, a son and a daughter. Hard times have come to the steppe. There was an outbreak of steppe murrain. Even the wolves have gone far beyond the mountains. The winter was severe, and there was no food, so not all families survived it.

Finally, the spring has come. Having barely waited out the winter, the aul migrated from the areas. The Mergen family stayed. They hoped to hunt prey. Then, one day, he went to the mountains. He was hunting for a prey for three days and three nights, but there was not a single footprint, neither of roe deer, nor wild sheep…

There was Mystan (a witch), who lived in those mountains. She was neither evil nor the kind… She was fair.

She oversaw wild animals and birds. She took care of every little animal in her couloir that spring. She and the people made an agreement a very long time ago. The agreement would prohibit people from killing any pregnant female animal in the spring. She strictly enforced compliance with the provision, and people did not violate it for centuries.

Mergen reached the couloir and went down to the river. There was a deep stillness, no songs of birds but the noise of water. He leaned over the water and saw the reflection of a roe deer in the bushes. He was desperate to find prey, so he grabbed his bow and shot an arrow into the bushes! A young roe deer screamed in pain and fear for herself and her unborn baby. Mergen rushed into the brushwood and saw that he had taken away not one but two lives. He realised that he had violated the ancient agreement! He felt bitter, but the hunger pushed him… He grabbed a knife and proceeded to cut the prey. He was in a hurry as he knew he had little time.

Mystan heard the dying cry of the roe deer, so she turned into the wind and rushed along the river to the place where the hunter had already begun dressing the meat into bags. The clouds thickened over the river, a storm began, and the hunter ran with all his strength, but the bags with meat slowed him down. Mergen tripped, fell and turned into a rock. His prey turned into stones scattered around.

The witch was in anger. She rushed to his yurt as she wanted to punish Mergen’s family for what he had done. The hunter’s wife felt something was wrong when she saw the thunderstorm was impending from the side of the couloir where her husband went hunting. She grabbed her son and daughter and ran to the mountains. But she didn’t get far. Mystan reached her and wanted to snatch the children from her mother’s hands. Nothing worked for the witch. The hunter’s wife stood up to protect her family.

She covered the children with the hem of her dress and her hands against the gusts of the hurricane. Mergen’s wife was the daughter of an old jeweller, so she knew one trick – evil spirits are afraid of silver. Therefore, she wore silver rings on her fingers without taking them off. While she was covering her children with her hands, no one in the world could take them out from her. Mystan fought for a long time with the hunter’s wife. Nothing worked out for her.

Then, the sorceress got furious and turned the mother into a fir tree. The woman froze, still, covering her son and daughter with her hands that were turned into branches.

While covering her children, the woman remembered the order of the old people, the alsakals, for the mothers, saying that you first need to save your sons as they continue the family line… This is why from the side where her son was sitting, the branches of the fir tree were thicker when compared to the side where her daughter was standing.

Mystan saw all that and was amazed at human cruelty, and somewhere deep inside of her own, too … Her human half manifested after a dark sleep! Pity for the girl melted her heart and took away her anger! She turned into a woman, took the children by the hands, led them out from the fir tree and took them with her. When the aul were returning to their place, people saw that the children of Mergen lived with the patroness of those places, Mystan. Someone was surprised, while the others remained indifferent to the orphans’ fate. They thought that maybe that is the way it is supposed to be. Mystan treated the children with care and raised them as her own. The time has passed…The boy grew up and returned to the aul. People called him young Mergen. The girl was named Zerger (jeweller) after her grandfather’s…Though that’s another story…

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jewellery | Kazakhstan | Vicki Mason

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