Every first artist was an amateur - Yehya Nofal was only a tween when he started showing interest in art. During his pre adolescent years, art was a major part of his life, both in shaping and carving his path. Soon after his attraction towards art grew, his antisocial and introverted behavior seemed to be a hurdle in his path. Yehya was diagnosed with ADHD, a disorder still misinterpreted by many.
Safe to say that his efforts began in the early years. He was unique in his way - he couldn't be moulded into an ordinary being. His uniqueness had always shone through his art - nothing could dull the brightness of his growing talent, not even average grades in some subjects such as Sciences and Mathematics. He overcame the initial struggle in school by always getting remarkable grades in art classes.
As he grew up, the thirst to discover more about his skills and polish his art grew even stronger; Yehya started attending a Private Visual Art Institute to take academic courses for six years straight during his high school. This step towards growth helped shape his art and personality immensely. During this period, he actively learned the basics of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture.
His dedication to art and pure talent pushed him forward toward achieving his dreams. He studied Contemporary Visual Art and finished his BA degree in the subject, which later on helped him forge a route to gaining more insight into contemporary art, as painting is just the tip of the iceberg that we call art.
An artist knows how to channel his fears, emotions, desires, and life struggles to create a masterpiece that conveys his story in each unique piece. As a person who has ADHD, Yehya greatly yet chose to make it a part of his identity, his strength, and his uniqueness instead of dwelling on ADHD as his weakness. His graduation project displayed his ADHD case as a point of strength instead of a weakness.
Nowadays, Yehya works as a self-employed/freelancer, artist, and designer. He is also the founder of his market name, "Yehya SittingBull Arts" - most of his masterpieces are displayed there in the form of high copy prints and his original work. Yehya's story is the most courageous inspiration for many. Despite the hurdles in his life, he chose not to back down but made art his language. He views art as the most convenient method to deliver his ideas and express his emotions - because art reaches places where words feel enslaved.
Yehya's art is uniquely aspiring because he draws inspiration from his own life and personal experiences with his sentiments to bring life to his artwork. He finds art to enrich his life, whether in painting, drawing, or sculpture. His experimental soul allows him to test different techniques and mediums to create something meaningful and uniquely his.
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During the 2020 pandemic, I was forced to stay home for a couple of months, and it was then when I started to think of new ways to fill my free time. I was very interested in doing something with my hands so after going over several ideas I stumbled upon an online courses for Polymer clay art.
As a very artistic, imaginative and creative person, I love to build and create things with my hands, especially in art. I enjoy sculpting and creating tiny things with clay like earrings and other accessories. I can describe myself as someone who likes the opportunity to create new things and find new ways to be innovative.
But why polymer clay?? It’s a material available in many beautiful colors, it’s a fine plastic modeling compound that can be baked into a permanent medium, and there is no need for expensive tools, just an oven and items for cutting and sculpting.
This clay has become increasingly popular over the last years for making modern and moderately eccentric jewelry. Although, spending time working with polymer clay is very interesting and exciting, but I’m facing many difficulties and obstacles, some of these are the lack of the clay itself, in addition to the fact that buying the materials costs a lot in comparison with other countries. The sculpting and forming tools can’t be found, so I need to look for alternatives which makes my work even more difficult.
Promoting my accessories is another difficulty as people here aren’t familiar yet with this kind of handmade jewelry and don’t know the real value of these things.
Working hard to create new designs and promoting them is still something I enjoy and will keep doing because the smiles that I create on people’s faces give me the motivation to overcome any difficulties I might encounter in the future.
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It will be a long journey of finding herself and the talent hidden within the depths of her spirit. With that being said, our 27 years old Macramé artist is nothing short of skills up her sleeves. A very talented Cedar Hussain can transform cotton threads into artful pieces that will leave you awe-inspired. It had all begin with cedar's interest in handmade pieces that she inherited from her equally talented father. As a child, Cedar would spend hours observing the creativity that her father's skillful hands had.
She not only picked up techniques but a hobby that rekindled her unfound talent. Cedar studied at a Latin Patriarch school and graduated from there. After that, she enrolled at the Arab American University as an accountant major and graduated with honors. During the three years in University, she had actively adapted knowledge and experiences with multiple elective courses to be more competitive in her field.
Apart from her studies, Cedar always had an interest in home décor and organization. She could transform the space into something beautiful and productive with her talent in home décor and designing. While exploring for more fun pieces for her home, her eyes caught the cotton cords called Macramé.
At first, she thought that it's something new, but later on, she realized that this mesmerizing talent of twisting cotton cords is as old as time, and even her grandmother had learned these skills in housekeeping classes in high school. This realization inspired her to start learning macramé from the comfort of her house. She watched YouTube videos to understand techniques better and practiced several hours a day, which further transformed her skills. Her creative soul wanted to explore and stretch her boundaries, so she started looking for cotton cords in different colors.
Due to the lack of options in the market, she decided to overcome the hurdle by dyeing the white cotton cords into a desirable color, but this proved to be another obstacle as the cost and process had a significant impact on self-dyeing. So, she directed her purchases from online stores for more options and a variety of colors. Macramé was just her hobby; occasionally, she would make pieces for friends and family. Soon, everyone in the family started telling her to start her own business as they were interested in purchasing the handmade pieces she made. Enough appreciation from everyone around had sparked her interest, and five years ago, she thought of taking the big step and pursuing this direction.
The journey of making handmade décor pieces is not as simple. From arranging the quality material to coming up with unique designs, Cedar had faced many difficulties. As she started selling macramé online on her Facebook and Instagram page a year ago, it proved not the best time to get into any business. The pandemic had taken a toll on everyone, and her small business didn't have the opportunity to see through success, but that's the beauty of artists with talent, their skills shimmer from far. Another hurdle was marketing her products as people can't truly grasp the beauty of macramé and her talent through pictures only. She has adopted modern ways to photograph her work which genuinely transforms her handmade macramé décor pieces. At current, she still faces multiple problems, but her vision is clear; she wants people to witness the brilliance of her macramé work in person. Shortly, we see this young lady soon becoming the owner of her macramé shop where she wishes to hold workshops to teach women and girls interested in learning macramé.
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Blessed with extraordinary talent, let this mother-daughter duo charm your senses with their delightful approach to jewelry making. A very talented duo with experience and skills in their pockets, Hala and Bisan are well equipped with brilliant ideas and designs that will transform your jewelry collection.
It all started with a love for gemstones and antique pieces, where this duo gathered talent and affection for hand-crafted and unique jewelry pieces. Hala was born on 21st January 1964 in Nablus. She completed her education in electrical engineering from the university of wales in Swansea. Destiny took her adventures soul to places where she learned and experimented with ordinary pieces and made them extraordinary with her talent. Hala kept moving and living between Beirut, Ramallah and Swansea. Her hands were skilled to fix stuff as she worked with electrical stuff as well.
Hala's daughter Bisan was born on 24 April 1988 in Nablus. Young Bisan shared the same passion for crafting stuff as her mother. After getting her degree in law from the same university in wales, Swansea as her mother, she took the same adventurous route as her mother and kept moving amongst many other cities.
Hala created pieces for her daughter which were always praised amongst her girlfriends. Bisan used to sell the jewelry her mother made for her in the university to support herself. Hala would go out to collect the gemstones and take it to the professionals with her ideas and designs, so they could turn it in to jewelry for her. But, she wasn't fully satisfied with their work.
"Before we started this project, mama once made a necklace for me with turquoise and silver and a girl in the university liked it and bought it from me that's when I told mama to take her talent seriously" Bisan shared.
The duo always had the same passion for jewelry making. They taught themselves the specific methods through tutorials. Before fully going professional, they started spending time in the gold, silver and gemstone market in Cairo to learn and polish their skills. The old craftsman around Cairo and Istanbul taught them techniques of antique jewelry making. This gave them a confident to start working as a professional.
This duo is creating pieces for every age group. Their jewelry can simply be passed down to generations and it will still be classy and timeless. Each piece has a story and inspiration. From collecting gemstones to handcrafting them, the process makes their jewelry even more precious. The collection portrays beautifully manifested designs with simple and clean cuts. The natural gemstones used in making will get you elegant recognition from parties to formal gatherings. This extremely talented mother-daughter duo share a small space to execute their unique and inspiring ideas.
You can find these special handmade jewelry pieces in the holy land and cherish your love for something purely handmade and hand-collected.
From making their designs to collecting the natural gemstones from different places, Hala and Bisan bring life to their jewelry with a meaning that everyone can connect to. If you want to be mesmerized and get lost in thoughts by their unique jewelry pieces then definitely check them out on our website.
Sandra Wadie George Aama is a twenty six year old fashion designer from Bethlehem city. Her love for fashion started early on in life when she was in seventh grade. At that time Sandra started imagining new design for dresses she wished she would wear when she grows up, and to make her dream a reality, even though she was still a young girl she started making fancy dresses for her own Barbie dolls as she played with them.
From that early stage in her life Sandra discovered her passion for fashion design and drawing and decided that she will make it her career choice. One of the major influences in Sandra’s life was her late father who kept motivating her and encouraging her to follow her dreams, as he always encouraged her to pursue an education in fashion design especially in Italy.
Growing up Sandra comes from a family with many relatives, as they a noticed her love for fashion design they began sending her their own clothes and dresses for her to adjust them to fit and even change their entire design. Having such validation from the people she loved and looked up for the most, it encouraged her even more to take bigger steps towards achieving her dream of becoming a well known fashion designer.
Unfortunately as she was about to finish high school and was aspiring for her trip to Italy her father passed away leaving her torn between losing her true support that always encouraged her and moving on in life to fulfill her dreams. Due to her unfortunate circumstance she couldn’t go to Italy and leave her mom, brother and sisters alone by themselves, she had to give up on her childhood dream of going to Italy. She instead started pursing an education in fashion design locally in Bethlehem.
The motivation she held on dearly from her late dad kept fueling her ambition as he always wanted to see her as a successful fashion designer, and that’s the reason why now she calls herself Sandra Wadie Fashion House as a dedication to her father’s name and memory. Sandra is very grateful for all the love and support she got from the people around her who believed in her and helped her in anyway they can to see her shine even brighter, she is so thankful for all her relatives for their support and especially her loving husband who always stood by her no matter what she was going through.
Gladly Sandra managed to get a fashion design degree from Italy but she had to do it online because she didn’t have the capabilities to travel for a prolonged period of time abroad.
She holds a diploma in Fashion Design from the Institute of Fashion and Textile. While studying at the institute, she was awarded a scholarship from the Royal Danish Academy of Design in Copenhagen in 2013. She holds many participations in local and international courses. She is a participant in a training workshop with ACAD Agricultural Development Center on the topic of establishing small enterprises and converting them to medium and large scale 2015.
She holds a course with the Institute for Community Partnership on the subject of project management and making economic plans. In addition she holds the best project idea within the framework of the YEP project in Sharm El-Sheikh 2015.
In 2018 she opened her own fashion hose Sandra Wadie in Bethlehem, in addition to doing her own first fashion show with her exclusive designs with the help and funding from a British institution.
Sandra’s story is a story of passion, sacrifice and hard work. She still faces many difficulties ranging from finding the necessary expertise and guidance to allocating raw materials all while doing everything herself without anyone helping or guiding her, but someone like Sandra is not the type of person who gives up easily, every time we meet her she always fills the room with so much positive energy and hope for a better future that encourages us to keep working hard for our dreams as well.
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Shireen displayed a great interest in drawing at an early age and worked hard to develop her skills over the years. She built her skills and finetuned them in school by building furniture and designing the cover of her school magazine.
She graduated from Al Ahliyya University in Amman with a degree in interior design, and afterwards moved back to Jerusalem where she aimed to be an active contributor to design in Palestine.
She worked in interior design offices, and it was during that time that she discovered she likes making crafts. From there, she went on to design lampshades and ceramic tables. Characterized by Palestinian pride and heritage, Shireen’s work often employ elements native to Palestine.
Her philosophy lies in taking the traditional, reinterpreting and presenting it in a modern way while also producing high quality products. The craftiness of olive wood and ceramics have been sources of inspiration for Shireen. They do not only spark ideas for her design but she also applies them in her final products.
Employing an eclectic approach to choosing the material she works with, Shireen uses versatile materials such as steel, ceramics and wood. Her products are handcrafted and custom-made. Each item she creates is a collector’s item and is one of a kind. Thus, she seeks out to use high quality material and chooses to learn from craftsmen who are top in their field and pay much attention to detail.
Salman’s work spans from residential and commercial interior design, such as kitchens, living rooms, offices, coffee shops, to pieces of furniture, lighting, ceramics, and pattern design. Design is never limited, and this freedom to explore gives Shireen more motivation to challenge her love for her culture and explore new ways to bring it to the world.
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