A look at the copper art of Kerman
In the Kerman copper market, which dates back to the Safavid era, the sound of hammers being hammered on officials can no longer be heard. Now, the market is no longer for blacksmiths, and many blacksmiths have changed their profession by abandoning their hammers, leaving only a few shops selling copper and copper ornaments.
Among the dishes and decorative items of copper that are sold inside the shops, there are many decorative dishes of Silver and Chinese and Indian copper, which is a danger to the traditional industry of Kerman.
Due to its proximity to copper mines, Kerman has been one of the important centers for making copper dishes and decorating them since 5,000 years ago. In the art of penmanship, the craftsman avoids creating any depressions in the surface of the copper dish and only draws lines on copper based on the desired design or creates textures on the metal surface with brushes that have different textures.
Kerman’s copper industry has a history of several thousand years, so that the excavations carried out in “Tal Iblis” 17 km southeast of Bardsir, Kerman, about 6000 years ago, the people of this area managed to melt copper in primary furnaces and make tools and dish. They have become Messi. Archaeologists have also found many artifacts in the Shahdad area that have older artifacts and the surface of the earth has been covered with molten copper molten lava.
Mesopotamia of Kerman from the Islamic period, until the end of the Safavid rule, continued to grow continuously and continuously until the end of the Safavid rule, the entry of European goods into the Iranian market caused the decline of metal industries in Kerman and this case continued until The industry suffered the final blow in the invasion of Khan Qajar; A blow after which the Kerman Metallurgy and Copper Industry could not straighten its back.
Kerman Deputy Minister of Traditional Arts and Crafts considers the reason for the decline of the copper industry in Kerman to replace industry instead of tradition and says: the use of Chinese dish instead of copper dish, global increase in copper price and increase in wages of copper artists has led to the use of dish and decorative items Reduce copper. Hosseini hopes that with the 40 percent increase in the budget of the Kerman province’s deputy for traditional arts and crafts, more support will be given to traditional arts and crafts in Kerman province this year.
Due to the variety of dishes that are much easier to use and less harmful to cooking, making a natural dish of copper cannot be a good market, so coppersmiths often make items that are more decorative. Although the sound of copper hammers has not yet been silenced in Kerman, the influx of Indian and Chinese copper dishes and decorative items into the market is the last point of life for Kerman copper.