Real Craft Workshops to Try in Sheki
A single square meter of Sheki’s stained glass can hold up to 14,000 individual pieces of wood and glass, locked together without a single nail, screw or drop of glue.
Shebeke: the wood-and-glass puzzle
Inside the Nukha Fortress courtyard, master craftsman Tofiq Rasulov and his workshop demonstrate shebeke, the technique of hand-carving interlocking grooves into walnut and boxwood timber so that cut pieces of colored glass slide directly into the frame and lock everything in place through geometric tension alone. Visitors can watch the process and try assembling puzzle-like test frames themselves. It is slow, exacting work: a full window can represent months of carving, and the finished screens are the single most photographed detail of the Khan’s Palace next door.
Kelaghayi: silk, wax and natural dye
Sheki mulberry silk gets its square headscarf treatment through kelaghayi, inscribed on the UNESCO heritage list in 2014: heavy wooden stamps carved with paisley buta patterns, dipped in hot wax and pressed onto silk before the fabric goes into vats of natural dye made from pomegranate rind, madder root or walnut husk. The Sheki Silk Factory, the 19th-century complex that earned the city the nickname “the Lyon of the Caucasus,” is where this craft is rooted, still producing silk thread and fabric today.
Sheki halva, watched rather than read about
A liquid rice-flour batter poured through a copper funnel onto a hot griddle produces the lace-thin rişdə sheets that make up Sheki halva, six to eight layers filled with spiced walnuts or hazelnuts and drenched in saffron syrup once baked. Local pastry masters demonstrate the pour and the layering in person, a far better way to understand the dish than reading the ingredient list, and it is worth timing a visit for when a fresh batch comes off the tray.
Copper and clay, in the open air
Along Mirza Fatali Akhundov Street, generational metalworkers still chisel traditional patterns into copper water jugs and other vessels in open workshops, alongside potters working the same street. Neither trade is formally packaged as a class here, so this is a watch-and-ask visit rather than a hands-on one.
Booking and visiting sensibly
A day trip from Baku covering the caravanserai and Khan’s Palace typically folds in a stop at the shebeke workshop, which is the easiest way to see it without arranging a separate visit, and it is worth searching GetYourGuide directly for other craft-focused options. Ask before photographing any artisan at work, and carry small AZN notes if you want to buy directly from a workshop rather than a shop. The Nukha Fortress complex housing the shebeke workshop is itself part of the UNESCO-listed historic centre . For where these crafts fit into a longer day, our walking tours guide traces the old-town route past most of them. The honest tip: the shebeke workshop and the halva demonstration are the two worth planning around; the rest reward a curious wander rather than a fixed schedule.