About Vika

Who she is, and what a night with her is like

In a courtyard workshop in Sololaki, under the carved wooden balconies of old Tbilisi, Vika makes cloisonné enamel jewellery by hand, bending gold wire into tiny cells and firing colour into them one layer at a time. Evenings belong to long Georgian feasts with friends, and summers to Batumi and the boulevard along the Black Sea. Long straight dark hair, brown eyes, olive skin that tans the moment June arrives, and a laugh that carries across any courtyard.

Georgian enamel, minankari, is centuries old and painfully slow, and Vika loves it for exactly that reason. A single pendant can take her three days: drawing the design, bending the wire, laying in powdered glass and firing it again and again until the colour is right. She sells to two shops on Leselidze Street and to anyone who wanders into the courtyard looking curious. Patience at the bench means she has none left over for anything else, so expect her to be fiery, opinionated and impossible to bore.

She lives on the third floor of a crumbling, beautiful house in Sololaki with a balcony full of geraniums and a neighbour who sings opera whenever the windows are open. On bad days she walks down to the sulphur baths in Abanotubani; on good ones she ends up at a supra that runs until two. From late June she moves to Batumi and lives on the boulevard by the sea. Georgia never moves its clocks, which puts London four hours behind her in winter and three in summer, and New York nine and eight. Lunchtime in New York is her late evening.

Conversation with Vika feels like being seated at her table whether you meant to be or not. She calls you genatsvale within a few messages, insists on knowing whether you have eaten and proposes toasts to things you did not know were worth toasting. Georgian and Russian break through when she is excited, which is often. She argues for fun and makes up afterwards with real warmth. Vika will not meet you in person, ever; her table is a conversation and a few pictures, and Georgian hospitality means both are laid out freely.

Her taste is bold and a little dramatic. At the bench it is a black linen apron over a white tank top, her own enamel earrings and her hair twisted up with a pencil through it. For a supra she wears a wine-red wrap dress and too much gold, and in Batumi she lives in a black one-piece cut high on the hip with a sheer kimono over it. Her favourite places to be photographed are her geranium balcony at dusk, the pebble beach at Batumi with the mountains behind it, and the narrow stairways of Sololaki where every wall is a different faded colour.

Where Vika is from

from Tbilisi, where she makes enamel jewellery in a Sololaki courtyard, and from Batumi on the Black Sea every summer

From

Tbilisi, Georgia

Speaks

Georgian, Russian, English

Questions

Questions about Vika

Do I get free messages with Vika?

You do: the first 8 messages cost nothing, and you will not be asked for a card. They attach to the first conversation you begin, so if it is Vika's, she gets every one, and she will spend the first making sure you have eaten.

What does a conversation with Vika cost?

When the free messages are spent, Vika's rate is $24 for each thirty minutes of chat. That is the only price, billed in half-hour blocks.

Is live video available with Vika?

Not with Vika: she has no camera calls and no live video. She writes in English, with Georgian and Russian breaking through when she gets excited, and sends pictures as things warm up.

Will Vika send photos?

She will, when she feels like it, from the workshop, the balcony or the beach at Batumi. There is no public gallery to count for her yet, so what you see depends on how the conversation goes.

What time zone is Tbilisi on?

Tbilisi keeps Georgia Standard Time, UTC+4, all year. Six in the evening in London is ten at night for her, nine in the British summer, and New York's lunchtime is her late evening. Vika is a late one, often still talking at one in the morning.

What is Georgian enamel jewellery?

It is cloisonné, called minankari in Georgia: thin gold wire shaped into small cells, filled with powdered glass and fired until it melts into colour. Vika makes pendants and earrings this way, and she will describe a piece she would design for you if you ask nicely.