Heritage of hard work and tradition
Mai Samih is impressed by artist Zeinab Khalifa's lyrical jewellery designs
Her silver bracelets and gold necklaces have a character that is different from more familiar designs. Khalifa, the artist behind the collection, is a graduate of the Philosophy Department at the Faculty of Arts at Ain Shams University in Cairo, and, beginning her career in the 1980s when she worked as an apprentice to traditional master silversmiths in Khan Al-Khalili in the heart of Islamic Cairo, she started from scratch like any other professional.
By the early 1990s, Khalifa had opened her own workshop and begun exhibiting her work. Her first pieces were exhibited in 1997, and she is now the owner of a workshop and gallery where her designs are produced by highly-trained craftsmen. Her knowledge of the region's jewellery-making traditions gives her work its distinct, organic quality. Though Khalifa lives and works in Egypt, her designs have been acquired by various private and institutional collections in America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Her jewellery draws on traditional jewellery-making techniques that she learned in Khan Al-Khalili, these being adapted to modern conditions and allied with more modern techniques.
"I use traditional techniques, but I also try to modernise them in order to bring them up to date," Khalifa says. Although she is not against using moulds in jewellery making, she never uses them in her own work since in her view jewellery making involves the craftsman, or craftswoman, interacting with the raw material as the work is created.
In Khalifa's view, jewellery does not have to use expensive materials in order to be beautiful, and she argues that wood, iron, stainless steel, enamel, silver, brass or ivory can be used in creating original ornaments. "The most important thing is the piece's innovation, creativity and originality," she explains.
Khalifa works with local materials, though she often has difficulty estimating the value of the materials used in her jewellery. It depends on the size of the piece, as well as the expertise and skill of the person who made it. Moreover, "there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration, such as the weight and the stones used in a piece of jewellery. This will determine the value of the piece, depending on the type of stone used. Another factor is the amount of work involved, or the type and nature of the inscriptions on the piece."
In order to extend her client base, in 1996 Khalifa organised what she calls a "recycled-silver" exhibition in which only jewellery using recycled silver was displayed.
"This gave me a lot of freedom, because I did not have to worry about the cost of the material, which I did not pay a lot for in the first place. Even if I had failed to sell all the jewellery, it would not have been a great loss."
Today, however, Khalifa laments that she does not have the time for such exhibitions, even though she thinks they may represent the future. "Recycling represents the future at a time when the earth is running out of raw materials," she says.
Al Ahram Weekly
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