( Sketches ( Photography by Natavan Vahabova
the new heirlooms
For designer Rasmina Gurbatova, jewellery is a medium through which Azerbaijan’s rich history and culture can be shared with the world, says Lauren Cochrane.
asmina Gurbatova is a bundle of contradictions. She’s the founder and designer of Azerbaijani jewellery brand Resm, but barely wears any jewellery. She has a finance background but refuses to tailor her creations for commercial gain. She’s a talented musician who plays only at private parties. And she is, by her own admission, “not a very organized person”, who manages a team of seven, moving between meetings, research and making jewellery, while caring for two young daughters. It was Gurbatova’s perpetually long to-do list that helped her realize
where her vocation lay. While she now works in jewellery, it isn’t her passion as such – you might even call her a reluctant jeweller. What really makes her light up is the rich history of her country, and telling the stories, legends, traditions and tales that make Azerbaijan what it is today. “Back then, we didn’t have souvenirs to tell the story of our culture,” she explains. “So my idea was to translate national ornaments into new mediums. I’d previously thought I might use textiles, but one day I designed a pendant based on the border of an Ajima carpet. I knew
Rasmina Gurbatova (above) wears her own designs: ‘Karabakh Kilimi’ earrings, named after the 11thcentury carpets, and a ‘Mughan’ bracelet.
then that enamel was perfect. Resm means ‘picture’ in our language, and the concept was for jewellery that would convey something,” she says. The idea didn’t come out of the blue. Gurbatova’s father is a jeweller and he helped her create that first piece. While she had previously shown little desire to follow in his footsteps, the stars aligned when she saw the grass-green and claret enamel pendant. “When I’d finished my first item at the workshop, I realized just how cool it was going to be,” she says. Gurbatova was working at the World Bank in Baku when she set
35 Baku.
