Ostaad Finastian

Ostaad Finastian is a “Ghalam Zan”, meaning “beating pen/brush”. Basically, what he does is use a small hammer to beat different points of metal pins on copper, thus creating lovely designs. His students varied in age from 20 to 35. He had a total of 8, four females and four males. I was able to film and photograph them and the environment was much more relaxed than Zanjan since in Tehran people could care less if their picture was taken. Yet, the Ostaad in Zanjan, Ostaad Heydari, had something more to him, something down to earth and relaxed. I felt the same about Ostaad Ghadirzadeh and Ostaad Aghai. I think the difference is that the three latter Ostaads worked within their own domain (Ostaad Heydari felt he was the boss in the workshop at the museum, and rightly so), whereas Ostaad Finastian works at the workshops of Miraseh Farhangi (Cultural Heritage) and is under tight supervision. This was a good day and I spent from 9 AM till 12 noon with them. I have lots of video footage and photographs. Met with Roshanak Keyghobadi and her mother at Khaneyeh Honarmandan later this afternoon where Lily Afshar was having a lecture on the history of guitar. She did a nice job and played a few examples.