bedouinjewels

BROM BEDOUIN BAUBLES TO BOUTIQUE BIJOUX

Written and Photographed by Liisa Berg

Few aspects of a foreign culture captivate the visitor more than the native arts as expressed in the dress and jewelry of the people. The more quaint and fanciful, the more they seem to validate the creators’ cultural and artistic merits. If this be the measure of validity, the Arab Bedouins have certainly secured their position in the world’s annals of enchanting cultures.

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It is perhaps the Bedouin jewelry that has found favor and fascination among those who have spent any time in Saudi Arabia. For who has not ventured out to the souqs in search of yet some unfilled little gem—a ring, a necklace, a belt, a few bangles, or some other little trinket? More serious collectors accumulate these treasures to brandish them in curio cabinets, or arrange them in a multitude of decorative ways to display.

The intrigue of such jewelry lies mainly in pleasure of artifacts of a bygone era. The art of Bedouin jewelry is hundreds of years old, dating back to the pre-Islamic times, although nothing nearly that old has survived. In addition, the expert workmanship, the substantial size of the jewelry which makes it eye-catching and the intrinsic value of the raw material—mainly silver, though some gold was also used—make these pieces highly desirable.

These venerable ornaments are characterized by chains, ball, bells and strings of irregular colored or silver beads. Stone of various color and value are displayed simply, surrounded by bead-work or filigree. Some pieces are made of intricate meshwork that resembles the European chain-mail, although considerably more decorative, and is often stitched to a fabric backing.

Despite the long history, surviving pieces are not very old due to corrosion of material, pilfering for the value of metals used, and for the prevailing tradition that dictated that the jewelry be destroyed on the death of its owner. Paradoxically, this tradition has also actually helped keep the tradition alive in that new pieces were created for new patrons.

Understanding the conditions under which Bedouin jewelry survives to this day, it is easy to see that this art is being appreciated more and more, and that those pieces that remain are guarded as quasi-museum objects. It is, of course, important that the preservation of such an heritage is carried out with care. But there is also another concern, and that is that under these conditions, much of these native expressions tend to remain stagnant and unfulfilled, for in stead of enjoying the attention that they commanded in their former role of adorning their past wearers, they inherit the likely destiny of corrosion by the pillage of time, or of vanishing into irrelevant cultures.

Such concerns were the driving force in creation of a totally new and fanciful line of jewelry—the Avin Design. Its owner and founder, Niva Amoury, had long had a keen interest and enthusiastic fascination with the Bedouin pieces that were still in abundance in the early 1980s. It was Niva’s fear that the pieces were falling into irreversible neglect and disuse, thus losing their potential as personal ornamental objects. She felt that the way to resuscitate a nearly lost art would be to enhance and modernize it.

She had seen some attempts of restoring the usefulness of the desert jewelry, but most of them left her wanting. She wished for something that would refine and elevate the “back-roads” ornaments into modern vernacular, with light and brilliance to catch the eye and awaken the desire to wear such pieces. Niva experimented with some of her favorite pieces by adding semiprecious, lustrous and colorful stones to them, and thus came

up with the astonishing, opulent interpretations that are now the hallmark of her art.

In 1984, Niva found an enthusiastic partner in her Saudi friend Mrs. Mona Hugailan. Thus they fused their expertise—Mona’s inborn interest in her native jewelry and Niva’s intense artistic talent—to create their first “desert jewel.” After the completion of this first masterpiece in 1985, more and more pieces were created and public interest piqued. They began to exhibit in private showings in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, and gave their jewelry collection the trade name Avin Design. (Avin is “Niva” spelled backwards.)

In 1990, their exhibit found favor in the far-off halls of Washington D.C. high society, as the American Arabian Cultural Foundation sponsored a showing at the prestigious Alif Gallery. It also featured in the prominent Washington D.C. magazine Museums and Arts of Washington. Further international attention came in an article about Niva in the in Hong Kong-based high-gloss fashion magazine, B International, a sister magazine to the New Yorker W, and Egypt Air in-flight magazine. The Avin collections have also been introduced on international television, namely, on Cable News Network (CNN). Most recently, their impressive and extensive collection was exhibited at the Arab Heritage Gallery in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

The process of creation is quite simple, although very painstaking and sometimes grueling. Niva concerns herself only with the best quality Bedouin pieces, which are getting harder and harder to find due to the overwhelming pubic interest in the native arts in the Kingdom. She employs mainly Saudi Bedouin jewelry, but a portion of the basic pieces also comes from Afghanistan, India, Yemen and Egypt—and in each country only from reputable dealers, to ensure the authenticity of the jewelry. Newly created pieces are not used, because they lack the attractive patina of well-worn jewelry, and display inferior production methods and craftsmanship.

Quality, however, is the only concern Niva has. With the decades of intense interest of the visitors in the native products, these small treasures are fast disappearing from their native soil. “It makes it very difficult to find what we want, and makes it virtually impossible to duplicate our own designs. Searching for the right [specimen] takes along time,” Niva explains.

Once she has satisfied herself with the quality and applicability of a piece, Niva carefully disassembles the entire piece to reveal all the intricate details and elements of the jewelry. Thorough cleaning follows, and the actual creating begins. She recounts that often she is able to visualize the end result without even making a preliminary drawing, but usually she does pen sketches of the potential ornaments. Many times she ends up taking a completed piece apart repeatedly because of a minute detail does not look right—even the slightest deviation, a misfitting piece, or a tiniest gap between the elements will disqualify a piece, and is immediately disassembled and adjusted until it is perfect. “I give my customers what I, myself, would demand in a classy piece of jewelry,” says Niva, assuring that her creation is “as perfect as it can be.”

To further enhance the real beauty and glory of a Bedouin piece, it may receive a coat of gold-plating, which endows it with a totally new validity in the eye of the sophisticated modern consumer. This also allows for a much wider contemporary application of the jewelry, enabling the use of more illustrious gemstones in the modernistic designs.

Generally, the semi-precious gems used in Avin jewelry parallel those used by the original silversmiths in the Bedouin jewelry, namely, turquoise, amber, agate, coral and pearls, among others. The original stones are rarely left in place due to the deterioration or their questionable quality. Niva also employs such beautiful stones and beads as lapis, malachite, jade and garnets, but her favorite is yusur, a black coral embedded with silver designs, typically used in Middle Eastern prayer beads. Amber is also appealing for its warm color and thus its striking appearance next to well-patinated Bedouin silver. All gem stones are purchased from reputable jewelers from all over the world to assure genuiness.

To assure that the consumers’ association of the jewelry stays in the Arab world, Avin Design pieces bear names of towns the vast region. The names are not contrived but rather suggested by the air and feel of the particular piece. Thus, a sumptuous gold-plated necklace of small beads is called Riyadh because its regal feel and appearance. Another piece, Abha, reflects the simple yet intensely artistic and authentic spirit of that small town in the mountains of southern Saudi Arabia. Luxor is one of Avin’s most lavish creations and personifies that ancient Egyptian city with its glorious pearls, amethysts and turquoise. Names of other pieces represent the spirit of the creations and endow them with a special kind of intrigue and life.

Avin Design has transported the primitive and unaffected bibelots of the Arab Bedouin into the luster of modern vernacular, for the possibilities of the archaic tend to be limited, whereas the interpretations in the newfangled offer an exuberant combination of the intrigue of the traditional folk art and the dazzle and sophistication of semiprecious gems that never leave the wearer—or the observer—untouched.

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This page was created on November 28, 2008

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