Handmade jewelry mastership in Grandbazaar; Transformation of the profession

Today, the thesis that handmade jewelry mastership performing production by traditional methods in Grand Bazaar is about to vanish in history, is a prevalent opinion. According to this opinion, no handmade jewelry master will be left in Istanbul within 10-15 years and handmade jewelry mastership will be disappeared. In this study, the aim is to test this widely accepted opinion. Under the scope of the research, interviews were performed with many handmade jewelry masters in Grand Bazaar and interpretation of interviews was made within interpreter hypothesis as much as possible. In above mentioned universe it was observed that an internal culture was built which differentiated from outer world and that this process was subject to very little change in five hundred years starting from fifteenth century to twentieth century, in other words it resisted to evolution. It was determined that unchanged production style of handmade jewelry played an important role in this resistance. Starting from the second half of twentieth century, the changes due to computer supported production methods caused dramatic conversions in cultural universe of handmade jewelry masters and resulted in a sharp revolution in the structure which had been resisting for centuries. In jewelry masters' universe the historical codes collided with capital focused new production style. The handmade jewelry masters who tried to retreat from this collision without stretching their cultural universe had to fall back from the market while handmade jewelry masters who managed to adapt old cultural structure to new production conditions continue to exist and even become stronger. According to the findings of this study, the prevalent opinion that handmade jewelry mastership has vanished is not true. What happened in recent years is the ability to adapt the conversion in production style or not. There are few handmade jewelry masters who could adapt the above mentioned changes and these masters are in very good position from economical and reputational point of view. This fact seems to have provided the necessary motivation to the new generations for the continuity of the profession. Keywords: Handmade jewelry – Grand Bazaar – Jewelry Mastership – Globalism -Technological revolution