Kholiddin Aliev

Uzbekistan

Year(s) attended: 2010

Chest Making

Kholiddin Aliev learned the chest making craft from his father, Khikmat Aliev, and later attended Ben’kov College in Tashkent. He combines woodworking with master chest making, thereby marrying together two distinct types of traditional crafts.

The tradition is a richly involved one. The first step is choosing certain woods that will be used in building handmade wooden chests. The chests are then decorated with a variety of sheet metals, such as tin, copper and silver, which are cut out into different sizes and shapes, creating a handsome jacket.

The cutout details are then affixed onto the chests using a variety of decorative nails and bolts. Some chests are then treated with a few layers of lacquer, depending on what kind look the artist wants. Interestingly, the backs of the larger chests are usually left undecorated since they stand against walls.

As a third generation chest maker, Kholiddin still uses traditional tools, including hatchets, wood planes, drills and scissors for the metal sheets.

Traditionally, the different sizes of boxes and chests have specific uses, from dowries to repositories for fine jewelry. Today the chests are mainly used for clothing and household goods.