Roman Karakurkchi is the founder of the Roman Karakurkchi jewelry brand and the International Jewellery School that brings together instructors from Russia, the USA, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Italy, and Germany, as well as students from 65 countries. The school became the basis of jewelry craftsmanship and the Roman Karakurkchi brand, with its creation preceded by many years of prior experience working with leading jewelry companies and renowned museums, including the State Hermitage Museum, the Russian Museum, and the State Historical Museum.
Roman Karakurkchi spoke to Rough&Polished about the International Jewellery School, its team, students, and master teachers, their involvement in creating the brand’s jewelry, craftsmanship standards, and global recognition.
Please tell us what brought you to the jewelry industry.
My family traditions did. I started as an apprentice at 13 at my uncle’s workshop in St. Petersburg, he was a graduate of the Abramtsevo Art School. After attending a specialized mathematics school, I graduated from the St. Petersburg University of Technology and Design with a degree in decorative and applied arts and metal art. I studied at the university, already qualified as a software programmer. So to speak, I transformed art into mathematics for myself: if you gained visual experience, you can determine the proportions of an object you’re drawing, build relationships, and precisely transfer them to your design. This made learning both easier and more interesting.
And when did the idea for starting up a jewelry school arise?
First, I set up my own company. After graduating from the St. Petersburg University of Technology and Design, I worked in the industry for a long time at various stages of production process as a hired professional employee, then I worked on production processes and their introduction, and later, I realized that I wanted to start my own business. My company mainly sold tools and equipment.
We had a lot of questions from our clients like “We have up-to-date equipment, but how to use it? Show us, teach us, we’re used to working in the old way”, “What new advanced tools and technical equipment have emerged?”, etc. And one fine day, I said, “We have a school in St. Petersburg. Sign up for our courses”. The school didn’t exist yet, but I had already thought over the teaching methodology to be used. We enrolled the first students to our courses, and six months later, we had to actually start our school.
I leased the equipment and started developing this area of activity. I wanted it to be more than just a school for developing basic skills - of which there are many - but rather a place that would impart the very best of our experience, including current methods, practices and technologies, the equipment that was not yet available on the Russian market, training under top masters and experts - not just theorists, but skilled practitioners.
My experience in equipping and optimizing jewelry production processes at major companies helped me in setting up the GRS Russia training center in 2014 transformed later into the International Jewellery School.
I invited several specialists from Germany, Holland, and, of course, Russia. Together, we developed the teaching methodology and tested it over several months to guarantee a proven result by the end of the course. We chose an intensive format: our students do a special intensive course during a week-long course - with the practical training and an after-action review. Then, they return to their main work or studio, reinforce the skills gained in carrying out real-world tasks and work, and come to take the next stage of training without wasting time for practicing within the school.
What is the optimal number of students in a group to ensure everyone receives sufficient attention?
We chose the optimal number of eight students maximum. Many schools have groups of 12 or 20 students, but I don’t think that’s right. If we undertake to teach complex techniques and promise high results after completing the course of training we need to devote sufficient time to each student, assess and correct their actions in time.
What country do you consider the most technologically advanced? You’ve undertaken and completed courses of training in both America and Europe.
I had experience in training at the Le Arti Orafe (LAO) school in Florence; I got training for about a month there. Our school was already up and running by that time, and we were already teaching. While vacationing with my family in Italy, I found the LAO school and signed up for an engraving course: I studied during the day and spent the evenings with my family. Like an obedient student, I did everything they told me to. It’s a classic, old school with hand tools, manual equipment, and the instructors had a very high level of traditional craftsmanship. I endured this type of training for a week, and then began showing my pieces of work and photos of our equipment, explaining the methods and techniques we use. At first, they told me it was all unrealistic and wouldn’t work in practice - until I met Giò Carbone, the LAO school’s director. Six months later, the teachers and instructors from Florence came to our school to get training, and it was not just training, it was a full-fledged collaboration. We have a more advanced methodology and up-to-date equipment; they are more conservative, but their level is very high.
In America, I spent two weeks training at the Grand Masters project organized by the GRS Training Center. Every few years, 12 of the best jewelers, selected based on their pieces of jewelry, are invited there. This provides both professional networking and an opportunity to learn new techniques from instructors and share some of your own ones.
As for advanced countries, I’d like to say that up to this day, the highest craftsmanship in the world is demonstrated by people from the post-Soviet space, living in various countries around the world.
Students of the International Jewellery School from 65 countries
Where did they acquire their skills?
Back then, there was no YouTube or high-tech schools - the education was standardized. Everything was developed ‘in the field’, through personal experience and mistakes, just as people once learned a craft from a master. And up to this day, we are against online jewelry craft training.
You don’t practice it at all, do you?
We’ve recently launched online courses in 3D modeling. But these are computer technologies, and they can be taught remotely. We don’t offer craft training online.
All other courses are held offline. Over twelve years of the school’s operation, approximately 2,000 people from 65 countries have come to study with us, and it was in-person training. I believe it’s impossible to remotely convey jewelry crafting skills at a high level - on-line. For many, the in-person training even becomes an incentive for change and growth. If you truly want to learn, you’ll come to St. Petersburg, Dubai, or Lisbon.
At the International Jewellery School
What is the relation of your school to the development of your jewelry brand?
We created the brand as a high jewelry atelier, primarily to realize impressive strong ideas and our craftsmanship in outstanding jewelry items. But it’s also an opportunity to show our jewelers, including our students, the path of development. It’s one thing to theoretically discuss how to grow, create higher-quality jewelry pieces, and position yourself as a jewelry artist. It’s quite another thing to demonstrate in practice how jewelry items are created and how to be successful in jewelry crafting.
We chose Moscow to develop a jewelry brand created in St. Petersburg. Both the school and production facilities are in St. Petersburg, while the Moscow showroom provides a new platform for growth.
Wha is your approach to the choosing of students to be enrolled? And how did you achieve such an international reach?
Our ‘international’ history is quite simple: when someone needs to learn a craft, the school’s level matters, not the borders. The skill of our instructors, as well as our methodology, techniques, and technologies are among the strongest in the world today: the geography of our students - 65 countries - speaks for itself.
As for our methodology, the course offered, and the team of teachers and instructors, I believe we are second to none. Our instructors are practicing, self-made and successful jewelers and artists, not theorists with a limited repertoire of techniques. These are people having solo exhibitions, they are distinguished artists whose works are displayed at museums, including the Hermitage and the State Historical Museum. For example, our instructors Vladimir Plakhov and Vladimir Popovich are the people by whom the school is judged. Our students normally appreciate the results and come from all over the world to learn the nuances directly from the masters.
We are attractive to established jewelers seeking to improve their skills. But young people, who have just graduated from a university or college, are also among our students - those who realize that their basic education doesn’t allow them to find a job and be in demand in jewelry manufacturing. There’s still a large gap between the standard education and the companies that need employees skilled in the art, and our school serves as a bridge. This explains its success.
What additional opportunities do your graduates have?
We work actively with colleges and universities, inviting them to demo workshop sessions to showcase the expertise and teach them to have a broader perspective of the profession.
When we worked on branding and positioning, it became clear how closely the brand and the school are connected. Our brand develops because of the high level of craftsmanship we teach. Our school develops because we have hands-on experience: everything new we discover and invent in jewelry making is used in our training techniques. One thing cannot exist without the other. We do our best to attract the most talented students to work at our creative atelier, where the graduates grow professionally and begin teaching other students: three graduates who joined us five years ago are already instructors using their own programs, some of which they have improved on their own - they’ve introduced their own initiatives and digitized the materials. This is an approach of the young to what we do.
Is the International Jewelry School team involved in the creation of the Roman Karakurkchi brand jewelry?
Of course, it is. We promote the talented jewelers working with us: they are the ones who create the brand’s jewelry and pieces of art. My name is in the name of a jewelry piece, but it’s the result of work of the entire team. We try to recommend the best students to our partners if we can’t hire them.
Our graduates are in high demand. Many employers follow us on social media and keep an eye out for promising students. This has its downside: not everyone is willing to ‘invest’ in people; many want to get trained - skilled - jewelers. When you send your employee for training, there is always a risk that after your ‘investment’, he or she will leave.
Ring from The Colors of Ballet Collection, Paraiba tourmaline (center stone), diamonds, and white gold
Do you focus mainly on organizing and managing now, or do you still create things with your own hands?
For the last year and a half, I’ve been actually a manager. The only thing I can still do is designing: at odd moments, during flights and vacations, I like to sketch on my tablet and develop solutions, for example, for transforming jewelry. And I always select the gemstones myself.
Ring from The Colors of Ballet Collection, pink tourmaline (center stone), diamonds, and white gold
Are perfectly crafted things always in demand and commercially viable?
It’s crucial to know where and to whom these things are shown, how to promote them, and storytelling is important. It’s not necessary for an end client to be an expert in the jewelry making techniques, so we take an educational role: we explain what, how, and why we manufacture, helping them develop a broad visual experience and a taste for quality jewelry items. Not everything that’s aesthetically pleasing and seems high-end is commercially viable, and here one must be able to convey the value of a jewelry piece.
We’re newcomers to the premium jewelry market; we still need time to grow and get our style - brand guidelines - adopted. When faced with the choice of creating commercial collections or high-end jewelry collections, we choose the latter, although we also carry out commercial projects.
Are there any authorities to you in the jewelry industry?
I don’t have any ‘gold standard’. But I like global brands - not always top-tier ones - that experiment freely with design and materials. People willing to take risks without regard for commercial value or marketability. I’d like to learn how to do that.
Who are the buyers of your jewelry?
They are people well-versed in jewelry art - well-educated intellectuals, people having a good taste, not just lots of money; those who can afford a lot, including luxury brand goods, but want something unique, a one-of-a-kind jewelry piece. Sometimes we don’t even publish or announce such jewelry items anywhere. It’s a private information, with provenance.
We also carry out contract manufacturing of sophisticated jewelry for other jewelry brands.
Iris brooch from the Impression Collection, with rubellite, titanium, and gold
You have a branch in Dubai. How are things going there? What are your other plans?
We’ve been providing training in Dubai for two and a half years. A partner venue in Lisbon will be launched in November. We’re also looking toward Asia as there’s a huge market there.
One of our immediate plans currently under implementation, is extensive work with the corporate sector. All these years, we’ve primarily worked with private students, but now we see a serious personnel shortage at jewelry manufacturers and work directly with medium- and large-scale companies that send their teams to be trained at our school and they are willing to invest in improving their workers’ qualification. We have partners with whom we’ve been collaborating for many years, including the Chamovskikh Jewelry House, the ALROSA Jewelry Group, and the Yuvelirprom Jewelry Factory - the top brands in the diamond and jewelry industry in the country.
Over twelve years of our educational activities, the level of the jewelry industry in Russia has significantly improved, and I believe we have a share of the credit for this. Promoting high jewelry craftsmanship fosters competition, and our company has improved and grown along with the market - in quality, design, and production level.
Roman Karakurkchi in the jewelry atelier
Do you have a professional motto?
I’m committed to continuous self-development and self-perfection. Our credo is to work like a high-tech production facility, think like artists, and maintain the highest jewelry craftsmanship standards.
Galina Semyonova, Editor-in-Chief of the Russian Bureau, Rough&Polished
