Irina, the artist who never stopped smiling
Walk through Georgia and you may pass her work without knowing it. The mosaics of the Soviet era — glittering walls, patient tesserae, decades of colour — many of them were made by her hands.
Irina is Armenian, from Sololaki, and a true artist. For more than fifty years she worked as a mosaic artist, and many of the beautiful Soviet-era mosaics around Georgia were made by her own hands. The neighbourhood knows her for something else as well: she is always smiling. The smile arrives before the tea does, and it stays long after.
There is also a secret. Irina mixes tcha-tcha with chocolate to make a special tcha-tcha chocolate liqueur — a recipe of her own invention that you simply must taste if you ever have the honour of visiting her.
For many years, Irina received a small income from the atelier of Zurab Tsereteli. When the famous artist passed away in April 2025, that income stopped. Today she receives a small monthly supplement from Babushki Sololaki, which helps her buy her basic groceries — so that a woman who spent half a century making Georgia more beautiful can keep her days simple and her smile intact.
Her work — Soviet-era mosaics, made by her hands.
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