The book «Қош келдің, Әз-Наурыз!» won the Grand Prix at the International Eurasian Book Fair 2023 in Astana and first place at the CIS International Book Fair "Art of the Book 2023" in Moscow.
The past that lives in the present
Today Kazakhstan's wedding culture brings together two worlds. We hold Syrğa salu and choose engagement rings, preserve family customs and create new traditions. This is how a modern family culture is born - where the world's symbols of love meet the heritage of the steppe.
The West built its tradition around a personal promise from one person to another - the engagement ring, the wedding ring, the eternity ring. The Kazakh steppe tradition built its symbolism differently: an ornament recorded not an emotion but a status, a transition, a kinship tie. Today both lines exist side by side, and it is at their intersection that the Mäñgılık Qūndylyqtar - Eternal Treasures - collection was born.
WISHLIST
Engagement rings: a promise in two languages
The engagement ring in its familiar form - a solitaire diamond in a classic setting - came from the West and took hold worldwide as a symbol of serious intentions and the start of a shared history.
Today most engagement rings on the market are based on Western imagery. We wanted to create jewelry that would speak to Kazakhstani couples in a closer language - through familiar symbols of the path, home and fidelity.
In the Kazakh tradition, a girl's status before marriage was also marked by an ornament - the «құс тұмсық жүзік» ring, whose name translates as «a ring shaped like a bird's beak». In steppe mytho-poetics the bird is an ancient symbol of freedom and happiness, and returning this ring to the parents from a married daughter was a sign that in her new family she is treated with care and lives happily, «like a free bird».
At this intersection of meanings the Tüietaban and Qarlyğash collection grew: the first sketch of the Tüietaban ring was born from an archival photo of a Kazakh stirrup with an ornament meaning a camel's footprint - a symbol of a long road and devotion. This ring says: «I choose the long road beside you». The Qarlyğash ring carries the image of a swallow - a guardian bird, a symbol of home and fidelity: «I promise you our shared home».
Tüietaban
camel-footprint ornament, a symbol of the path and reliability
Qarlyğash
swallow ornament, a symbol of home and fidelity
Wedding rings: the circle as a symbol of union
The wedding ring is one of the most enduring images in the history of jewelry: an unbroken circle with no beginning or end, a symbol of a union that must not be broken.
Today many couples choose classic wedding rings, but increasingly they look in them not only for a form but also for a story. Among Kazakhs, the idea of a new family had its own form - the cone-shaped «отау жүзік» ring, whose name comes from the word «отау» - the yurt of newlyweds set apart from the larger clan. This ring was given as a sign of creating a new, independent home.
Rings and jewelry for important occasions
Not only a wedding is marked with a ring. The eternity ring is a concept rooted in antiquity but turned, in the 1960s, by jewelry houses and the De Beers corporation into a global tradition: it is given on significant anniversaries or to celebrate the birth of a first child.
Among Kazakhs, the birth of a child and the strengthening of kinship ties were marked differently - through the құдағи жүзік, a massive ring that the bride's parents gave to the future mother-in-law as a sign of respect, gratitude and the new kinship between families.
MÄŇGILIK QŪNDYLYQTAR
eternity ring for engagement rings
АНАГА ТАГЗЫМ
kudagi juzik
A personal family chronicle
A woman gathers her story gradually.
An engagement ring. A wedding ring. Syrğa salu earrings - a tribute to the tradition of entering the family. Jewelry to celebrate the birth of a child. A gift for an anniversary. This is how a personal family archive appears - a collection that can be gathered along the milestones of life and one day passed on to a daughter.