18K Lapis Pendant

“If you do what you love you will never work a day in your life” are words I live by. I wasn’t always a jeweler, but I knew the second I started creating my art that I would never do anything else. For as long as I can remember my parents have wanted me to follow in their footsteps and become a dentist. In 2017, I took a class on jewelry design on a whim, and I fell in love with the art. It was at that moment where I knew that I wanted to switch careers and pursue jewelry. As an Egyptian, it is only natural that I embraced Egyptian jewelry styles in my designs.Maintaining my culture in my jewelry is a valuable aspect. Therefore, I named my company Nebu, symbolizing the name of gold in ancient Egyptian civilizations. Additionally, I find it incredibly important to preserve the ancient techniques. As time goes by the techniques are becoming rarer and the craftsmanship they require is even more uncommon. In order to ensure that the craftsmanship and techniques continue to be practiced I will go wherever in order to learn an ancient technique. I have visited New York and San Francisco, and learned techniques ranging from Filigree to Granulation. Through every piece I create I want to resemble my culture. In addition, many of my pieces have been created around a stone, rather than finding a stone to complete my design. Jewelry was an expected passion but a passion which completely changed my life, a blessing in disguise. - Youmna Elsabry