Saadatmand,
Abolghasem
Seyyed Mohammad Sa'adatmand is
one of the most famous bead makers who works and lives in the city of Qom.
Q: Please give us a short biography of yourself.
A: I am the elder son of the family. I have three brothers and two
sisters. My father was a potter or what people today call a ceramic maker.
As soon as I opened my eyes to this world, I got acquainted with pottery
workshop. When I was two and a half years old, I began to play with
pottery clay. At that time, our workshop was in Tehran near the Nayeb
al-Saltaneh market in Aab-Mangol lane. My father had a pottery and plaster
workshop in Darvazeh Doulab district. I rode a mule and went to Darvazeh
Doulab. I used to meddle in all affairs. I knew the prices of all products
and was acquainted with many things that were going on there. I usually
went on errand for the workers working in the workshop all the times. They
ordered me to do such and such work to fetch such and such thing. I walked
around in the workshop chatting with the workers in order to learn the
secrets of the job.
I got married at the age of 22 and began to work independently.
Q: When did you formally begin your production activities?
A: When my father came to Tehran from Qom, he bought a shop. The
basement of the shop was our workshop and we distributed and sold our
products in the shop itself. My father had to move the workshop to the old
market of Qom to escape harassment and persecution of its neighboring
shopkeepers.
At that time, bushes were used as fuel for furnaces and our shop needed
24 to 25 bundles of bush for its fuel. I who was 12 years old at that time
was responsible for buying bush. In addition to working at the workshop I
went to school.
It was in that workshop that I became familiar with the secrets of this
profession. I remember a story that may be interesting for you. One night
I was drinking a cup of tea at a mosque when the saucer caught my
attention. It was made by Khak Negar Moqaddam. This caused me to decide to
embark on making china saucers.
I made such a progress in this field that the saucers made by me were
sold in large quantities and became so popular that they soon seized the
market from Khak Negar. The outbreak of the Second World War and its
ensuing problems forced me to give up my job and leave for Tehran where I
worked as a salesman for 12 years.
Q: How did you happen to embark on making glass beads?
A: One day a person came and placed order for a large number of beads.
My father had told him to talks to me. It was in 1968 and I had just come
to Qom from Tehran without knowing much about bead making. In short, I
made necessary preparations and began my new job. Those who had ordered
the beads intended to take them to America.
Q: To America?
A: Yes. Apparently for ornamentation. They said such glass beads would
be used for decoration of the bottom of pools, man-made hills in parks or
gardens of houses.
Q: What are other applications of glass beads?
A: As you know, glass beads used to be threaded and tied around the
neck of donkeys and some other animals. But beads were made in different
shapes and gold was used to ornament both openings of the hole through
beads. They were gradually used for making necklaces by the Americans. I
personally made beads in the shapes of a circle, cross, moon, star and
heart. Of course the circular type of a bead is called glass bead. Another
type of bead called "Kusuchi" was formerly made to be attached to the caps
of children in order to protect them from the harm caused by an evil eye.
Q: Who are your predecessors in this profession?
A: This profession has a long history, but I remember two masters of
this craftsmanship: One was Molla Ali Asghar who was an old man when I was
a child and the other Aqa Mohammad Seyyed who was a very kindhearted man.
The latter was afflicted with tuberculosis as a result of inhaling alkali
vapor and then died. When silica ad alkali are smashed they give out thick
dust which may afflict workers with tuberculosis if the workshops in which
they work are small and narrow. For this reason, I built a very spacious
workshop with high ceiling and windows which was unusual at that time, to
preserve the safety of my workers and my own safety.
Q: How are beads and glaze made?
A: The raw material needed for making glass beads is silica paste which
is mixed with glue to have better viscosity. Then it is shaped by hands or
by molds if necessary. The shaped beads are coated with glaze and put into
furnace to be baked. The finished products are taken out of the furnace 47
hours after the furnace is cooled.
Formerly, every workshop produced its needed glaze by itself but the
ban imposed by the government on picking alkaline bush provided an excuse
for import of glaze from abroad, heralding the demise of glaze making in
the country. Moreover, the problems concerning the procurement of raw
materials and reduction in demands for this product served to decrease the
number of those interested in this profession and put this craftsmanship
on the verge of extinction.
