As a seasoned esthetician, I had been thinking about the notion of beauty for years, both subjectively and in practice when serving clients. I believe the genuine beauty comes from within. So, I always aimed to empower my clients to be in touch with their inner beauty and embrace it. I kept reminding them that what they saw in the mirror is not merely a new hair colour or a trendy hair cut; they were staring at a reflection of how they felt about themselves — their self-worth. Nevertheless, my perspective on beauty was far less popular among estheticians, and the mainstream beauticians made me second guess my passion for this profession.
Around the same time, I developed a life-threatening heart condition which left me with no choice other than an urgent, multi-stage heart surgery. I was terrified but I had no other choices. I went through the surgery and despite all the paralysing post-surgery complications that patients like me normally experience, I decided to live every second of my life and stay focused only on living.
I believe, sometimes, severe medical conditions change us fundamentally; they force us to make decisions that we have been putting off. Suddenly we become unbelievably perceptive and capable of seeing our surroundings far more clearly. My heart surgery made me realize that being an aesthetician was no longer fulfilling for me. So, I gave up my beauty salon and embarked on a new chapter.
While spending days in bedrest and monitoring my blood pressure and heart rate, I heard about a jewelry-making technique: Silver Art Clay. A friend told me that in Art Clay, artists work with a soft lump of silver consisting of a small amount of water as well as an organic binder. After creating a desired shape of a jewelry, the piece is exposed to fire or goes into an oven. So that the heat burns the organic binder and evaporates the water; the heat removes the impurity from the art piece and after all, we have 99.99% pure silver... I thought to myself: “that’s the real beauty...”
I immediately fell in love with Art Clay because Art Clay was — and still is — so aligned with my definitions of beauty: the beauty exists within the metal, and as artists, we only remove the unwanted particles; the impurity. And that’s the genuine beauty!
When I first started looking for an Art Clay instructor, I hadn't recovered fully from my surgery. Luckily, in a matter of days, I was introduced to one of the best, most talented and insightful instructors in the community. Since the moment I held the soft, cold, shapeless lump of the silver clay, I knew what I wanted to create: poetry. I wanted to translate poetry to jewelry through my art. And that’s how I reconnected with my favourite poetries of famous poets in my home land, Iran. I was able to re-imagine the beauty mesmerized in their words. Once again, I had become a teenager re-discovering my emotions throughout poetry — What an amazing life to live!
Over the years, I crafted hundreds of unique jewelry pieces telling a great deal of stories: stories of lovers, of Mother Earth, of hopes and dreams, and joy. I bring my art to Collage Cafe Gallery to share my favourite poetries, passion, and dreams with you. Each art piece has a name that either tells the story or represents the story-teller. I also invite you all to join me in one of my art clay journeys. In this online art store, I’ll take you on a virtual journey of creating an art piece and giving birth to a poem. I am looking forward to seeing you all virtually on this journey.
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