Leather flasks and vessels were used to store and transport water and sour milk drinks such as koumiss, khoytpak, and araka (milk vodka, the national Tuvan drink). The leather vessels were so well dressed that they looked polished.
Their shape, size and material were influenced by the nomadic lifestyle of Tuvan herders: much of the utensils were made of leather, an accessible, durable and convenient material for transportation.
The Tuvan flask with a high narrow neck (kogerzhik) was mainly used to store koumiss or milk vodka.
These flasks were sewn from the skin of cattle. Tuvans achieved great mastery in dressing leather for kogerzhiks. Their complete impenetrability, lightness and durability should be noted in the first place. The leather of some kogerzhiks is so well dressed that time had no effect on them: they are hard as dense cardboard, smooth and even to the touch, they neither warp nor crumple, and always keep the shape once given to them.
Kogerzhiks were made in the following way. The cowhide was soaked in milk serum for several days, then the wool and underskin were peeled off, and two halves of the flask were cut out. Both halves were turned inside out and sewn together on the inner side with a special stitch with a leather pad. Only the neck was left unsewn. Then the flask was turned inside out, the neck was sewn and tightly packed with hay, earth and sometimes manure. On the walls of the flask, while they were still damp, a pattern was made by using a rod or a heated iron, or it was simply scratched with a knife edge. Then the vessel was suspended over the hearth for smoking, making sure that the skin did not dry out and retained its elasticity.
As a rule, the patterns that decorated flasks, made by professional craftsmen, were distinguished by a very high artistic level of production. The lower quality flasks, usually also decorated, could be found in almost every Tuvan household.
The flask is made by the craftsman Sergey Kochaa in a traditional Tuvan style. Sergey Khomushkuevich was a versatile craftsman, working with agalmatolite, embossing on leather, metal, wood, artistic molding. He patiently restored the ancient Tuvan crafts.
