Master Jewellers Are Disappearing, Craftsmen Alert


Varna, on the Black Sea, June 24 (BTA) - Master jewelers are
disappearing and the middle class is going with them, craftsmen
told BTA. Jewellers are suffering from all the negative
consequences of global processes and practices, as a result of
which their craft is declining. They do not face the competition
and the art of foreign craftsmen, but a system which uses
conveyor belts, machines and matrixes. The jewelers expect
measures for preserving the craft and the middle class which has
widely been said to be the backbone of society.

According to the Chair of the Regional Craft Chamber in Bourgas,
Maya Stoyanova, jewelers have long lost a field to show their
craft, their produce is costly because it is handmade and
unique. Their efforts to ease the regime of buying the raw
material has proved an impossible task and gold is just a metal
they process, she added. The import of jewellery creates the
feeling of abundance, but it actually generates problems and
unemployment, craftsmen say.

According to the Customs Agency, the registered imports of gold,
silver and other precious metal jewellery between 2013 and
April 2015 came from seven countries, amounting to 5,992.5 kg
worth 11,899,552 leva. The largest imports came from Turkey
(5,112 kg of jewellery worth 8,743,788 leva), followed by China
with 522 kg worth 1,298,153 leva, Thailand with 288 kg worth
1,569,834 leva, the United States with 54 kg worth 147,391
leva, Hong Kong with 4.5 kg worth 110,871 leva, India with 11 kg
worth 21,579 leva and Israel with 1 kg worth 7,936 leva.

Stoyanova thinks this development is due to the fact that the
Crafts Act which was developed with the help of Germany is not
working. Jewellery was excluded from the list of crafts and
people who had dedicated dozens of years to their development
could not continue to do so. This changed the philosophy of the
law initially passed in 2001.

According to jeweler Arman Avedisian and jeweller and watchmaker
Atanas Marinov, tourist clients usually look for material signs
as authentic mementos of Bulgarian culture and aesthetics. The
cheap products from China and Taiwan, however, have made them
voluntarily become retailers.

According to Avedisian, the best clients of tourist connoisseurs
are Russians and Ukrainians, both of whom mainly want objects
made in Bulgaria.