From Pakistan to Idar-Oberstein, Germany

Challenge Bawra speaks with Aiza Mahmood, Mahvash Salim, and Dua Fatima Baig about their artwork jewellery practices since their commencement from the Gem stones and Jewelry program in Idar-Oberstein, Germany.

Challenge Bawra: Inform us a bit about your background and the important points addressed in your work.

Aiza Mahmood: Since childhood, I’ve been fascinated by steel. Visiting factories with my father, I used to be captivated by its scent, weight, sound, and uncooked magnificence, and cherished working with my palms. As I grew, I observed supplies have been gendered—knitting and beading for ladies, metalwork for males. Feeling misplaced in “female” crafts, I used to be drawn to the physicality and problem of steel. Jewellery attracted me not for design however for making—the transformation of laborious matter into intimate objects. This led to bachelor’s and grasp’s levels in jewellery.

Selecting iron turned each rebel and problem, demanding full bodily engagement but yielding delicate kinds. My work embodies this pressure: daring and uncooked, but refined sufficient to put on.

Mahvash Salim: My background bridges visible arts and design. I maintain an MA in artwork and design from Beaconhouse Nationwide College (in Lahore, Pakistan) and an MFA in gems and jewellery from Hochschule Trier, in Idar-Oberstein. My apply explores storytelling by way of supplies, specializing in reminiscence, id, and emotion. I see my work as a thread of narratives that revisits childhood areas and fleeting moments. For me, jewellery is greater than adornment—it’s a vessel carrying private and collective histories. A lot of my items act as time capsules, preserving fragments of life and reflecting tales of residence that proceed to form my sense of belonging.

Dua Fatima Baig: My work makes use of gender as a lens to look at how area, objects, and society intertwine within the hushed choreography of every day life—an order so ingrained it typically escapes discover. Rising up in Pakistan, I witnessed how custom and social norms form ladies’s lives. With a bachelor’s in jewellery design and an MFA in gems and jewellery, I translate these experiences into up to date adornment as a catalyst for social reflection.

How does your expertise at Idar-Oberstein and dwelling in Germany mirror in your work?

Aiza Mahmood: At first, Idar-Oberstein felt isolating, a spot the place I didn’t fairly belong. A professor suggested me to cease forcing my work and as a substitute join with my environment. I started creating small interventions in on a regular basis areas—sinks, doorways, even scattering my identify on paper round city—as a manner of claiming presence and discovering my voice.

Over time, Idar-Oberstein turned a secure area for experimentation. Its quiet inspired reflection, whereas entry to the German and European jewellery scene supplied precious publicity. Encounters with artists like Gerd Rothmann deepened my understanding of bijou’s cultural dimensions. Surrounded by gemstone amenities, historic corporations like Jakob Bengel, and traces of mining historical past, I used to be impressed by a city actually constructed on stones—the place custom and up to date apply coexisted.

Mahvash Salim: My time in Idar-Oberstein was transformative, although not within the anticipated manner. Whereas the city is famed for its gemstone traditions, my focus was on resin. Working with it allowed me to layer, embed, and protect imagery—strategies that resonated with my curiosity in reminiscence and narrative. I typically visited native stone outlets, and although I didn’t work straight with gems, being immersed in that tradition of materiality deepened my understanding of how supplies maintain that means. Exchanges with college students from various backgrounds additional formed my view of bijou as storytelling rooted in cultural context. Past Idar-Oberstein, participating with the broader German and European jewellery scene broadened my perspective on the sector’s up to date expressions and potentialities.

Dua Fatima Baig: Residing in Germany and finding out in Idar-Oberstein was each difficult and transformative. Immersed in a tradition so in contrast to my very own, I used to be pushed past acquainted frameworks and started to see my background with new readability—[I was] distant sufficient to note patterns as soon as invisible at residence. At instances, it felt as if I have been viewing the problems addressed in my work from behind a window—indifferent, but deeply observant. The city’s stillness supplied solitude that developed into reflection. Being aside from residence allowed me to rethink my concepts with contemporary perspective. This era deeply formed my apply: the works I created then embody a quietness and sensitivity to absence and presence that arose straight from these experiences.

How have you ever continued your apply since commencement? What help have you ever obtained in Pakistan after you returned? What challenges have you ever confronted?

Aiza Mahmood: After graduating in 2015, I practiced briefly, exhibiting at Galerie Marzee’s Graduate Present, the Beijing Worldwide Artwork Jewellery Exhibition, Talente 2016, and extra not too long ago in Astana and Almaty, Kazakhstan (2025), alongside commissioned work. Steadily, I shifted towards schooling, introducing jewellery programs to bridge the hole between academia and business in Pakistan. With just a few establishments providing such applications, I felt compelled to help rising college students.

Pakistan’s stunning chaos turned each inspiration and problem. Its tradition and craft traditions are wealthy, but supplies and amenities are restricted, principally concentrated in main cities. Modern jewellery—my space of coaching—was typically misunderstood or undervalued. Alternatives largely got here from overseas, whereas native recognition required compromise. Creating work that happy audiences however muted my voice was tough, but it taught me how deeply context and group form inventive apply.

Mahvash Salim: After graduating in 2016, my work was proven within the Galerie Marzee Graduate Present; Sieraad, in Amsterdam; Neuer Schmuck aus Idar-Oberstein, in Valencia (amongst others); and most not too long ago at Alhamra (Lahore Arts Council). Since returning to Pakistan, I’ve been educating jewelry-making at Beaconhouse College and dealing as an educator within the Visible Arts program at Worldwide Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.

I additionally based my very own model, Atelier Mahvash. The jewellery market right here favors conventional and mass-produced designs, making it difficult for up to date work to search out an viewers. Entry to high quality supplies and expert collaborators is restricted, but I proceed creating small-batch, handmade items rooted in storytelling and uncooked gems. With help from household and a rising circle that values narrative-driven craftsmanship, I’ve been in a position to maintain and evolve my apply regardless of these challenges.

Dua Fatima Baig: I’m based mostly in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. My apply balances industrial expertise with inventive exploration. Working at an area firm gives self-discipline and perception past the studio, whereas commerce festivals and exhibitions—together with Inhorgenta Munich, Talente, Marzee’s Graduate Present, and Legnica SILVER—have expanded the visibility and fostered dialogue round my evolving work.

What are your future plans?

Aiza Mahmood: I not too long ago moved to Australia to start a brand new chapter and set up my very own jewellery studio. I goal to create an area for producing my work and showcasing different up to date jewelers, fostering group and collaboration. This studio will help connections regionally and internationally, together with Pakistan and Germany, my earlier houses, whereas permitting me to discover how this new atmosphere shapes and develops my apply.

Mahvash Salim: I goal to deepen the conceptual aspect of my work whereas rising Atelier Mahvash as a model bridging artwork jewellery and wearable design. I’m dedicated to advancing jewellery schooling in Pakistan by way of programs and workshops that encourage up to date practices, important pondering, and materials exploration. My apply evolves in two instructions: private inventive exploration and making up to date jewellery accessible. In the end, I hope to create an area that unites making, educating, and exhibiting jewellery as each artwork and adornment.

Dua Fatima Baig: I goal to proceed increasing my apply. Experiences in Europe have allowed me to experiment and mirror, fostering inventive {and professional} development. With up to date jewellery under-recognized in Pakistan, I hope to bridge native and international practices, selling collaboration, cross-cultural change, and the event of rising jewellery communities.

The opinions said right here don’t essentially specific these of AJF.

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