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Ani Sargsyan

Marine Martirosyan

Master Silversmith “Koko” from Aleppo: Adapting and Dreaming in Yerevan

Five years ago, Garik Khumaryan and his friend Boris Hambardzumyan founded a silvery business in Yerevan to showcase Armenian culture via jewelry.

Back then, imported jewelry was more fashionable. While looking for ideas, the friends visited museums, studied Armenian architecture, miniature paintings, and collected materials for jewelry ornaments.

After giving it some thought, they named the brand "Im Zard" (“My Jewelry”),  to show potential customers  that everyone can find their own jewelry here.

They sell their products in Yerevan's Vernissage market.

They have more than 1,300 styles in reserve but haven’t trademarked all of them. The ornaments display Armenian culture, dance, architecture. Garik shows some samples to us, and one of them is made in the style of ancient Armenian silverwork. Garik says that they are lucky to have their silver master Koko working with them.

The two friends met Grigor Chaprazyan, aka Koko, in Vernissage in 2015, when Koko had just moved to Armenia from Aleppo. He was selling his silver souvenirs, which were quite attractive.  

Koko’s present workshop is a small room resembling a narrow corridor. The master with blackened fingertips welcomes us with such warmth that the narrow area seems larger than it is.

Koko says it wasn’t an easy decision to move, but his family lived in the New Village district of Aleppo, which was only 500 meters away from the ongoing military operations, and his mother and sister were terrified by militant rocket fire that twice damaged their windows.

Koko says he came to Armenia empty-handed, leaving his house, large workshop and all his tools in Aleppo. He didn’t plan to be engaged in silver production in Armenia. Instead, he took some silver souvenirs to sell. He shows us the last sample - a silver violin.

Koko says souvenirs made of precious metals are common in Syria, as part of Eastern culture, and learning a craft is a tradition there. He studied silverwork from the 6th grade and owned a workshop at the age of twenty.

The silver master notes the jewelry taste differences in Syria and Armenia.

"The choice of ornaments is limited there. Arabs do not use any ornaments with animal or human images, they prefer shiny ornaments and flowers. Here, we’ve started making jewelry with images of famous people and petroglyphs," says Koko.

"You have to work with good thoughts and a good mood to make work easier and more beautiful," Koko says.

He used to think about Aleppo a lot, but now he tries to adapt to the local laws and culture.

The master silversmith now dreams of having his own house and a workshop in Armenia.  

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