In an effort to save traditional Egyptian arts and help create careers for underprivileged women, Egyptian jewellery designer Suzanne El-Masry has helped create a training workshop that teaches the art of textile, jewellery making, painting and sewing.

The graduates of her workshop have gone on to sell their creations and make an income based on their newly acquired skills, according to the August 2008 issue of the Egyptian monthly Community Times.

El-Masry studied fine arts, textile designs and jewellery making in the U.S. After graduating in 1981, she held several exhibitions of contemporary Egyptian jewellery and worked as a jewellery designer in Paris. Upon returning to Egypt in 1996, she opened a store with three other partners, called Al-Khatoon, to promote local arts and crafts as well as her jewellery collection.

In early 2008, El-Masry was approached by an Italian couple during her jewellery exhibition in El-Gezira Centre in Cairo.

The couple managed a non-governmental organisation that supports traditional crafts in Egypt, and asked El-Masry if she would be interested in an initiative to teach crafts to locals.

They had already begun a jewellery-making workshop, which inspired El-Masry to start her own workshop for different techniques of jewellery and textile-making.

El-Masry chose to open a craft showroom or “an atelier,” as she calls it, in the crowded area of Tulun, a district in historic Cairo that dates back to the ninth century.

Thanks to her Italian friends, she was able to find funding for the project through the Italian organisations Regione Lazio and Movimento Comunita.

“At first, the residents were very cautious and hesitant to participate [because of] their lack of experience,” she told Community Times. “So, I first recruited five girls and then more came through word of mouth.”

“At first, the residents were very cautious and hesitant to participate [because of] their lack of experience,” she told Community Times. “So, I first recruited five girls and then more came through word of mouth.”

In the end, she managed to recruit 15 women between the ages of 18 and 45, most of whom lived under difficult conditions and were fighting to survive.

“I wanted to work with women who are willing to learn and create,” she said. “And they really wanted to learn and took the project seriously.” El-Masry hired eight people to run the workshop, including a handicraft artist, five teachers and two assistants. The staff trained the 15 women in patchwork, printing, sewing and aghabani embroidery, a traditional sewing technique used in the Middle East and Asia.

Training lasted six days a week for four months, after which the women began to produce printed and hand-painted wall hangings, curtains, lampshades and clothes.

Their products were then put on display at an exhibition, where customers placed orders for the items and generated demand for the women’s skills.

“[The work] gives them self-confidence and enthusiasm,” El-Masry said. “The whole experience was miraculous … for women with no knowledge at all. With hard work and assistance, they [began to feel] appreciated, self-worth and satisfaction.”

At the end of the four-month workshop and its exhibition, El-Masry recruited eight women from the group to continue working at Al-Khatoon, which sells home furnishing accessories.

El-Masry displays the women’s work at the store, and has since received orders for their products, including an order for 15 wall hangings placed by a store in Lebanon.

All of the 15 participants have received enough training to start producing their own work and finding jobs in other workshops.

Their craft work combines technique with traditional Egyptian art, such as old Sufi poetry printed on manuscripts, bed covers, belts and bags.

They also print classic Egyptian movie posters on bags, belts and wall hangings.

“I do not want to produce art in an abstract way,” El-Masry told Community Times. “I want it to relate to culture and beautiful meanings.”