Caucasian Lezgi Sumakhs - Dugul Looms
Jozan Magazine has asked Ryan Smith to tell about his interesting
weaving project taking place in Qusar in the Lezgi region of Azerbaijan. Ryan Smith
is the founder of Dugul Looms, a company and project dedicated to preserve and promote
traditional Lezgi weavings.
"I
am an American who has been living in the mountains of Azerbaijan among the Lezgi
people and I entered the Lezgi community in December of 2003, as I
was working with a small business development firm in Azerbaijan called CB
Consulting", says Ryan Smith to Jozan Magazine.
"As I began to investigate potential economic development
projects, I was immediately attracted to their weaver culture, and the
potential it has to bring resources into their community" he
continues.
"The
Lezgi's traditional woven structure is the sumakh. The Lezgi weaving culture
seems to be on the verge of extinction. In the Lezgi region of Azerbaijan, only 2 villages out of 82 still have active weavers. The demands of an agrarian society in combination with the availability of cheap machine-made carpets suffocate their fragile weaving tradition.
Mass production of sumakhs under the Soviet regime advanced the
decline of Lezgi weaving. While sumakhs had long been commercially
produced for export, their production had still largely been a private
home craft, allowing for the weaver to take pride in her work. Large
Soviet factories quickly eliminated this vital component to the craft’s
preservation. Additionally, traditional intricate designs were replaced
with simple degenerated designs to accelerate production. The priority was
quantity, not quality."
According
to Ryan Smith the goal of
Dugul Looms is to preserve and promote Lezgi weaving, and to find direct paths to markets to be able to keep as much of the profit as possible in the local community.
"In the beginning of the project I spent
months researching the Lezgi's weaving history, availability of materials and
weavers, and eventually ordered a bunch of yarn and contracted with a
master weaver and her weaving network", he says.
"After that we wove a bunch of pieces, and sold them primarily to
the expatriates in Baku, Azerbaijan. The initial goal was to determine if
the project could be commercially viable, and it was. The
next stage is to
raise
the weavers’ wages and to create financial incentives for quality, and
to do our own natural dyeing. While our first batch of yarn was unfortunately commercially
dyed, we are already developing the natural dye process for all of our future pieces.
It
is our aim to find a direct market for our products,
creating higher wages for the weaver and a better value for the customers.
Before even establishing a market for our products, the wages of our first
weavers 
were immediately increased 33%. As we are able to establish a
market and ensure the financial viability of this project, we are eager to
continue to raise the weavers’ wages. Increased wages is a critical step
toward encouraging more women to learn the craft and, thus, ensuring the
preservation of Lezgi weaving. Many of our weavers are single mothers, often
widowed or divorced, who are alone in raising their children. In a land
where only manual labor exists, it is very difficult for them to
adequately provide for their families. Dugul Looms empowers these women to
care for the people they love most."
Ryan Smith is now back in the States for several months, and
will promote the project. He has brought back several fine examples of
sumakhs, and would love to show them to anyone with interest.
More information: Dugul Looms,
Ryan Smith
Jozan Magazine 26 February 2006
