He is the most famous jeweler in the city of Vlora. He finds Bexhet Rrapin every day working in his small workshop in the “Albano Dhe Romina” neighborhood. His passion and talent is working with silver and gold, which he says requires a lot of imagination and patience.
“For a long time it was me. Now there are 4. I am the veteran of Vlora who still works. It’s a passion, the more years go by the more I relate to it”he says.
He likes to single out some of his work. One of them is the creation of a medallion with national symbols.
“We made the eagle in gold, from an Albanian woman who left. I made the cross. Bracelet with their names”he added.
The 63-year-old tells us some moments from his work before the 90s.
“The school of jewelry helped me. I applied and won. Gold and silver work was done. At that time, difficult works were done with casting and stamping. Various repairs. We did work with the client’s materials because the state did not allow us to work privately. If works were done and the client was marked with high carat. Verifications were made immediately. The person who brought the order was verified. There was no store for trade.”emphasizes Bexheti.
During his work there were also awkward and difficult situations. One of them is during his many years of work. Rapi says that there have been times when he has had to help clients remove rings from their fingers.
“We have had very difficult cases that occur from the removal of the ring from the finger. Our intervention was needed. It’s been a tough day for one to have their rings removed with friable stones and water. Rings are very difficult to remove”he emphasizes.
In addition to jewelry, he has adapted to the market by repairing glasses and watches.
“After the completion of the system, we started working privately. We rented a shop. Now I have mine. I do repairs, silver, gold and glasses.”
There are no more than 4 jewelry repairers in all of Vlora. Therefore, Bexheti calls on young people not to neglect these types of crafts./abcnews.al
