Meet the Artist
Naida Abbas born in Makhachkala, Dagestan, “The Land of the Mountains”, situated in the North Caucasus region of Russia, on the Caspian Sea coast.
From the age of 5, Naida spent many hours beside her father, Abbas, who was a sculptor, quietly watching him at work, amazed at how an amorphous ball of clay miraculously became a three-dimensional object in his hands. The surrounding art and nature had a huge impact on Naida’s artistic development from an early age. To honor her father, she adopted his name as her artist name.
Discovering her love for jewellery at the art school, Naida’s journey into the universe of jewellery art began. After completing her Bachelor’s degree at the Art College in her home city, Naida moved to Moscow, where she received her Master in Arts and Crafts at Moscow State Stroganov Academy. All through her years of study, she had constantly been working in her studio on commission pieces, designing, fabricating, and discovering new jewellery techniques.
In 2002, Naida moved to Abu Dhabi, UAE, to work for two reputable jewellery companies, where she focused on various high-end collections and customized bespoke jewellery design for individual clients, including some members of the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi.
Twice International Jewellery Design Award Winner, in 2007 and 2012, Naida has kept challenging herself to reach higher levels of creativity and emotional expression through jewellery.
In 2009, Naida became an independent Jewellery Artist and Teacher of Jewellery Design and Manufacturing (Zayed University and Art-workshop under DCT, Abu Dhabi.) She has inspired many students, who have won jewellery design competitions both locally and internationally.
Naida Abbas lives and works in Abu Dhabi, UAE, surrounded by the Arabian Gulf and Desert.
Naida Abbas Philosophy
I design and make mostly personalized, one-of-a-kind jewellery out of my urge to create an extraordinary object of art with the purpose of uncovering the beauty that lies all around us and sharing it with the world. Each jewellery piece has a spirit of its own and I hope the wearer can feel this.
Nature, architecture, psychology, science, anthropology and so on speak to me and, through me, they speak to you in the language of metal, stones, wax-carved models that takes so many expressive forms. The story that each jewellery design that I create is unique because it captures a fleeting moment of life, ephemeral sounds of music and poetry through textures, patterns and rhythms of nature and the universe we are all part of.
The result is a unique piece of jewellery that will speak to some and hopefully find a loving home. The magic happens in the simplicity or complexity of the details in the design and selection of materials.