Aziz Murtazaev

Aziz Murtazaev leads Marikat, a cooperative of independent ikat masters, dyers and weavers dedicated to the preservation of traditional craftsmanship and cultural values, and their transfer to the next generation. Born in Margilan, in the Fergana Valley, Aziz did not train in the family workshop, but studied languages and business. After a career in finance in London, he went back to Margilan for reasons closer to the dye vats than the ledger.  It is colour that holds him. He works with what the valley grows and yields - madder root, pomegranate rind, walnut shell, indigo - steeping silk thread until it takes the exact red, or brown, or blue he is after, colour-fast enough to survive a European wash. Along the way he has brought back methods Margilan had mostly set down: block printing by hand, and the old finishing of silk with egg white, a technique few dyers still bother with. Aziz’s work carries the UNESCO Seal of Excellence for Handicraft Products.