Female: Silver filigree is one of the hand crafts peculiar to modern city. A three thousand
year old craft is being kept alive by crafts man like Suphi Hindiyerli.
Suphi: It’s been almost 52 years since I started this job. The silver filigree exportation
center in Ankara has conducted research to find the origins of silver jewelry in the
Mesopotamia region around three thousand BC. The world uses 925 sterling
silver but we use one thousand-grade silver. This is because if it is not one
thousand-grade silver it is impossible for it to be filigree. The quality of the silver
depends on the amount of copper in it. So we don’t even put 2 grams of copper in
one kilogram of silver.
Female: Suphi explains that he sometimes sees a design in his dream and he immediately
awakens to execute. His works end ale shaping delicates silver filaments into
exquisite jewelry.
Suphi: Now I’m filling in this violet and then I carefully put this all together. I am setting
this on top of each other so that they can hold each other up.
Female: Did you know that the art of gold and silver jewelry making flourished under the
15 century Ottoman rule. The sultans and their queens love to adore themselves
with the elaborate finery and this led to a massive boost in the art of jewelry
making which still thrives in Turkey today.
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