I started thinking about jewelry as a teenager, inspired by my mother’s jewelry creations and Morocco where we lived at the time. My family and I traveled extensively discovering the High Atlas, home of the Berber tribe, and the Southern desert regions around Marrakech, Quarzazate and Taroudant. It was on these early trips that my interest for Berber and later indigenous jewelry began. My passion to travel and discover tribal arts in the various corners of the world has continued to this day. My creative expression is very much shaped by these early encounters, but also by my background. Born in Iran and raised in Germany and Morocco, I grew up multi-cultural and multi-lingual.

Educated as a painter, print-maker and book artist in the Southwest of the US, my jewelry also reflects my formal art training and aesthetic. I often translate a color theme or pattern I am working on in a painting into the conception of a necklace. The two processes can be synergistic, where ideas flow back and forth from one medium to another.

I find inspiration in sources as varied as Persian miniature painting, Japanese woodcuts, the organic patterns of a Gustav Klimt composition, the abstract geometries of an Islamic mosaic tile, or the lines of a Berber tattoo.

The marriage of ethnic and modern is a major theme in my work. Another is the desire to re-tell the myriad creative stories of indigenous women and men through the medium of jewelry. Most of my pieces incorporate tribal silver parts, which I collected over a period of 20 years.

The materials I use are primarily gems stones, old collectible glass beads and precious metals. I am interested in combining tribal pendants and charms or intricately worked silver beads which have a unique patina, with modern accents and stones, such as a highly polished metallic Hematite, a deeply translucent Prehnite, or a delicately faceted sparkling Spinel. An eclectic mix of materials, the play with color nuances and an eye for detail, are part of this new collection of jewelry. All designs are one of a kind or small editions made in Berlin, Germany.