Among Egypt's jewellery designers, 30-year-old Salma el-Farsy, who started designing jewellery and accessories ten years ago, is unique. However, in this North African country, talented designers find it very difficult to get support for and implement their ideas. Egyptian customers tend not to look at the artistic value of jewellery, rather its practicality. Salma, like all designers, has had to work very hard to survive in a very competitive market. The hand-made works of this beautiful designer, born in the inspirational city of Aswan, in Egypt's deep south, have been influenced by her heritage. "I like everything relates to heritage, such as the art of Aswan, the Bedouin tribes in Sinai, Morocco and in fact everywhere. Each and every heritage has had a great impact on my designs and artistic ideas," she explains. Salma, a graduate of the Faculty of Specific Education, was interested in sculpture to begin with, but her professor was so impressed by an accessory she designed that he recommended her for an Italian scholarship. So off she went to Italy, where she learnt her craft from that country's very best jewellery and accessory designers. "Italian designers are very talented and they are also happy to pass on their secrets to the younger generation. In Egypt, this profession is vanishing because of the dearth of talented designers," she told the Egyptian Mail in a sad voice. In order to help Egyptian jewellery designers, Salma has been teaching them in her own private centre. Over the past decade, she has noticed that many people working in the jewellery industry are uneducated or started working in this field faute de mieux. In her centre, she tries to hone the skills of specialist students, as well as those wanting to launch their own jewellery businesses. Her dream is to open a school in Egypt for children with design potential. "The school is a dream, although at the moment international and local support is lacking for this, given the post-revolution political instability here," she added, explaining that Egypt's designers are in dire need of more support and backing, in order to flourish.
