Ethnic craft at the click of a mouse

An Afghan potter at work in a kiln

Mix a resurgence of interest in handcrafted work with a dash of romance and a sprinkling of philanthropy and you have a winning formula. At least that is what Rory Stewart, founder and executive chairman of the Afghanistan-based Turquoise Mountain Foundation, believes. And, judging by the success of its first UK commission, at London’s Connaught hotel, he could well be right.

Turquoise Mountain is a non-profitmaking group set up in 2006 to restore Kabul’s historic districts, with initial seed money from the Prince of Wales. It now employs 350 local people and has rejuvenated 40 buildings, also generating collateral social projects and abundant goodwill. The foundation’s 120 students are trained in traditional handwork, including carving, pottery, glass and furnituremaking, and those graduating from its educational programmes receive UK City & Guilds accreditation. Alongside the acquisition of these skills a renewed sense of pride and purpose is emerging. “It’s a project that has a very specific message – that Afghan art and architecture is beautiful, worthy of international respect and can also generate income,” says Stewart.

What is remarkable is the global reach. Interior designers or homeowners, wherever they are located, can commission bespoke work via the organisation’s website. They are rewarded with beautiful, unique pieces with a surprising relevance for modern, western interiors. Wooden panjare lattice screens with elegant geometric patterns – formerly used as palace windows – are now used as decorative wall panels, table-tops, shutters or cabinet doors. Finely carved wooden panels can be employed as ceiling mouldings, dado rails or frames for paintings or mirrors. And any home can be spiced up with intricately carved wooden doors.

“The Afghan strengths for woodcarving are exceptional and this work has proved easier to export than ceramic [pieces],” says Stewart. Still, high-spec western interiors might also benefit from the mastery of Kabul’s stone-cutters, who shape and facet marble or semi-precious stones to fit within decorative inlays or overlays. Specialist calligraphers, meanwhile, can produce texts in carved wood, on gilded, handmade paper, in semi-precious stone inlays or on glazed, ceramic tiles.

It’s a leap of faith to commission work long-distance but the Prince’s Lodge, a suite developed during The Connaught’s recent £70m restoration, provides an accessible showcase, as its designer, Guy Oliver, explains. “I went to Afghanistan while Turquoise Mountain was being set up and fell in love with the place. I remember seeing the early-19th-century Peacock House, part of the former royal residence in the Murad Khane district of Kabul. It had a muddy, brown exterior but incredible charm inside, with carved peacocks in the window screens. I remember thinking it would be incredible to re-create at The Connaught, where I’d just been appointed principal designer for the restoration.

“The intimate nature of the hotel encouraged me to think of it as a large, private house and, because country house owners often commissioned rooms inspired by their foreign tours, I decided to create a traveller’s room among the new interiors.”

Working in collaboration with the foundation’s head designer, ustad [master carver] Nasir Mansoori, Oliver focused on hand carving. “Woodworking is the most identifiable aspect of Afghan craftsmanship and, as our commission was about helping preserve the culture, I wanted to avoid recreating European neo-classical designs,” he says. “When I first saw the Peacock House it was dilapidated and abandoned but has now been fully restored by the same artisans who created the Prince’s Lodge. I feel this is the right way to work with a charity – to encourage self-sufficiency.”

Indeed Oliver had to convince directors of the Maybourne Hotel Group, The Connaught’s owners, that the work would be delivered on time and within budget. “They were brave to take it on but I was determined to make it happen,” he says. “The artisans had a rather relaxed attitude to delivery dates and were two months late. They’ve had to learn to be much more commercially minded now.”

Will such highly crafted pieces work as well in a modern home as they do in a historic hotel? “The language of the carving definitely translates to a contemporary setting,” says Oliver. And the recent completion of carved pieces and furniture for US, Canadian, Japanese and Afghan embassies and several private buildings bears this out. “I’m hoping to commission Turquoise Mountain for my next project too,” he adds. A period townhouse? A country estate? “No, it’s a hip nightclub in the Far East,” Oliver says gleefully.

www.turquoisemountain.org