ZM Collections: Create Your Link To the World
Jewelry and sentimental value often come hand in hand.
A powerful piece of jewelry has the ability to remind its owner of when, where, why and how they obtained it. It harnesses a sentient, and becomes more than just an inanimate object used for the purpose of vanity.
Zeina Madwar is an Egyptian artist, who managed to capture the essence of this concept and build a brand around it. As an artist, her sculptures and paintings gravitate towards themes of nature and organic life. With a fascination for preservation and the idea of permanence in life forms, she founded ZM Collections, an unconventional jewelry brand that promises eternal life in a pendant sized capsule.
The idea is to collect beautiful pieces of nature such as a shell, a flower, a fossil or any form of preservable life and create an accessory out of it. Giving each piece a unique story, and beginning a journey, which the keeper is responsible for continuing.
For example, a small Red Florida Prickly shell from Ras Sudr is preserved in a 2cm wide, resin pendant, dipped in 21k gold. Sold to a girl from Cairo, who travels to study in London, who then gifts it to her room mate from Japan, who moves to Vienna for work. All of a sudden, this shell has travelled the world ...
Zeina photographs the pieces herself, worn on her friends and loved ones. No models. No sets. No make up. Just the beach and a few creative souls putting together beautiful images. The pendants are now available in sterling silver as well.
We spoke to Zeina about creating ZM Collections.
Why a jewelry brand? As an artist, what made you gravitate towards this medium?
The brand is less about jewelry design and more about harnessing an experience. Each pendent is a mini treasure, and you pass it on, travel with it, and create your own link.
What attracts you to a flower, fossil, shell? Color, shape, size?
It's mainly about seeing something beautiful and wanting to preserve it. Be it a plant, fossil, shell; I collect them and keep them in a box that allows me to create these one of a kind pieces.
How does ZM Collections connect as a brand to Zeina Madwar the artist?
Both are built on ideas of organic life, nature, and what is rough or unrefined. They flow into one another, the infectious series for example is an extension of my resin paintings. The pendants are mini pieces of art. They are connected.
The brand works with the hashtag #createyourlink, in order to generate awareness around this idea of using jewelry as a conceptual connection to a certain place. ZM Collections can be ordered online from Instagram and is also sold on Sheyaka by SHE an online store for local Egyptian brands.
“There is no better designer than nature.”
