There’s More to Nespresso Coffee Capsules Than You Think!

After enjoying a delicious cup of coffee how many of us do actually think of recycling the empty Nespresso capsules as pieces of fashion, home decor or stationery? This quirky idea struck Dalia Ghorab, who always had a hard time throwing away the beautiful empty capsules, and hence she decided to give them a new lease of life as bookmarks, jewellery and even home decor accessories.

We at Jeddah Blog fell in love with Dalia’s creativity and couldn’t wait to bring her work to our readers. Jeddah Blog writer Samreen Ahmed promptly got in touch with Dalia to find out more.

Earrings made from recycled Nespresso cups.

Dalia introduces herself as an architect who worked in Egypt but quit her job to move to Jeddah with her family eight years ago. She always loved arts and started making handmade accessories in 2012 before she began recycling Nespresso capsules. “I am kind of a hoarder,” says Dalia. “I started saving the capsules not sure of what I’d do with them. Then I started googling and found out that they were collected and recycled worldwide but not in Saudi Arabia.” Dalia contacted the Nespresso team in Jeddah who also confirmed that they do not recycle the capsules, so Dalia came up with her own plan of action and began designing recycled products made from Nespresso empty capsules.

All the accessories she makes are hand-made and it is difficult to imagine that they were once nothing but empty capsules. There is a variety of things you can find in Dalia’s collection but the goth ballerina pendant deserves a special mention.

Goth Ballerina Pendant with Black Turquoise Stone.

As a passionate art lover and a mother she wanted her children Adam, 14 and Laila, 12 to do something worthwhile and thus encouraged them to join her in this mini project which is also an initiative to save the environment since the capsules are made of aluminium. It is amazing to see how creatively Dalia has transformed plain aluminium pods into rings, earrings, pendants and trinkets and she suggests that the capsules can be used in various art projects in schools to reinforce the importance of recycling in children. Even Dalia’s 4 year old and 2 year old toddler play with the clean emptied cups learning colour recognition, sequencing and counting. It seems the possibilities are endless.

Dancing Princess Pendant with Pink Garnet.

Schools in general must take up more such art projects that help in bringing out the creativity in children while creating a civic sense in them from a young age. Nespresso capsules particularly make up a huge amount of waste every month and it is high time this waste is put to good use. For the purpose of promoting this idea Dalia, Adam and Laila hosted a stall at the spring fair in British International School of Jeddah.

Spanish Torero Pendant with genuine pearls.

Dalia believes that not only children, but grown ups too must get involved in collecting and recycling Nespresso capsules and find new ways to reuse them. Dalia’s ideas and collection are becoming popular with Jeddawis and she tells us that within just a week her Facebook page attracted a lot of fans and followers. The innovative team is doing their bit, but they are looking for more support and promotion of their idea to make the concept of recycling Nespresso capsules popular in the country. “It would be lovely if someone can help in holding exhibitions, contests or anything of that sort to promote the idea. We are trying to raise awareness to save the environment with a creative and artistic approach”, voices Dalia.

So if you are a coffee lover and are a part of the huge crowd who throws away coffee capsules, take a peek at Dalia’s work and join hands in saving up the capsules and crafting out beautiful masterpieces which otherwise would harm the environment when discarded in bulk.

Check our the Nespresso Capsules Recycling KSA Facebook Page for more Nespresso creations, set up and moderated by Dalia’s son Adam Abouzeid and their Instagram account moderated by her daughter Laila Abouzeid.

Samreen Ahmed runs a blog called Love.Hope.Dream. Click through to discover her musings.

 

 

Upcoming Exhibitions at Athr

Athr Gallery will be showcasing three solo artists, Faisal Almalki, Sara Abdu and Ramy Alqthami in the beginning of November. Read on for details.

LONE CANYON Faisal Almalki Solo Show Opening: Sunday, 2nd of November, 2014 03 November, 2014 – 10 January, 2015 Space 01, 5th Floor, Athr Gallery Faisal Almalki’s upcoming show titled Lone Canyon explores that tiny space between a woman and her veil as the artist encourages the public to see things the way she does.

THE INTANGIBLE BONDS IN OUR EXISTENCE Sara Abdu Solo Show Opening: Sunday, 2nd of November, 2014 03 November, 2014 – 10 January, 2015 Space 03, RF Floor, Athr Gallery In her first solo show titled The Intangible Bonds In Our Existence, Sara realizes the bonds that exist between humans and their surroundings; bonds that link any human to their emotions, realities and dreams; bonds that play an integral role that shape and affect us. She realizes these bonds as a co-existent consciousness within our own existence.   AL BITRA Ramy Alqthami Video Screening Opening: Sunday, 2nd of November, 2014 03 November – 03 December, 2014 Space 05, 5th Floor, Athr Gallery Ramy Alqthami revisits ‘Al Bitra’- the concrete block which was given to his family at random by the leaders of his tribe in Taif that bordered his land; a numbered block that easily identified this land as his. In his simple video of its removal, he reexamines the ‘Bitra’ as a representation of an economical, sociopolitical phenomenon that has consumed the state of humans. He poses the removal of a tangible concrete object with the removal of a metaphorical notion of borders and identity.   PREVIEW OF ZIAD ANTAR’S EXPIRED SERIES  02 November – 03 December, 2014 Space 02, RF Floor, Athr Gallery Captions (top to bottom) – Faisal Almalki, Mirror, 2014 – Sara Abdu, A Sleepless Savior Within A Dream Part II, 2014 – Ramy Alqthami, Image still of Al Bitra, 2014 – Ziad Antar, Mecca I, 2012 Copyright © 2014 Athr Gallery.

Opening: Ali Ferzat & Emy Kat Solo Exhibitions

Two upcoming exhibitions this April by Ali Ferzat and Emy Kat at the Athr Art Gallery, Jeddah.

ECHOES Ali Ferzat Solo Exhibition Opening: Sunday, 13th of April, 2014 at 7.30 pm Exhibition Dates: 13 – 30 April, 2014 5th Floor, Space 01, Athr Gallery Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Let’s speak all languages ​​without a language… “The Mischievous Caricaturist”, with this description begins his journey from the city of Hama; an artist who revealed the beauty of everything around him. He comes up with an idea which in return ignites your imagination and makes you wonder if you can realize it? After a while, you begin to see the dream and fantasy turning into a reality… Since his early memory in Hama and throughout the time of publishing the independent periodical, Al-Domari “The Lamplighter”, his story has been a constant struggle that doesn’t know defeat nor does he surrender to hesitation and frustration. Even when they broke his hands to make him stop him from drawing they failed and achieved the contrary. That horrible incident didn’t hinder him, instead it fuelled him and enabled him to add more shine and glamour to his creativity and consequently kept him influential as usual. THE EVERLASTING NOW Emy Kat Solo Exhibition Opening: Sunday, 13th of April, 2014 at 7.30 pm Exhibition Dates: 13 – 30 April, 2014 RF floor, Space 02, Athr Gallery Jeddah, Saudia Arabia Mohamed Alkhatib a.k.a EMY KAT has travelled around the world in search of new and interesting heights. Living between New York, London and Paris. Alkhatib has chosen to settle in the “city of light” Paris and opened his own private studio. Always seeking to experience various ways to initiate conversations between expression and the places he has been. In  2009 he set off to rediscover his Middle Eastern heritage in his series Souls on the Streets in Marrakech. Immersed in his research, Alkhatib went back in 2011 to the main source of his enquiry, the city of his birth, Jeddah, where he grew up. He started to work on a new project supported by patrons who believed in his project, he lived in the heart of Jeddah’s Old Town (Al Balad) for three months. Like many other cities around the world that only unleash their secrets to those they love. The city was telling him about its struggle, sending signs to him like a messenger carrying its key, it displayed its beauty even though it looked abandoned, it displayed various colours, even though they seem faded, the colours forever retained their heritage. Places and light invited him to enter and whispered to him “come, get closer and immerse yourself in my beauty, that which I only show to those who seek it”. This experience produced a series of photographs, Athr Gallery presents to you, in hope to find a hint of the aforementioned beauty.

Jeddah Art Week 2014

Visit this upcoming photo exhibit and view the beauty of Jeddah from 1-6 February 2014, featuring Pinoy photographers. The exhibition opens at 7pm in the Al-Furusiyah Exhibition Hall in the Jeddah Park Hyatt Hotel.

 

Prayer Rooms

Ammar Al Attar Solo Exhibition
Opening: Tuesday, 14th May 2013
7.30 PM – 9.30 PM
Athr Gallery

Exhibition Dates: 14th May – 13th June, 2013

Ammar Al Attar surveys prayer rooms across Jeddah. Mandated in public buildings by national legislation, these informal worship areas are ubiquitous, providing the faithful a place for their five prayers a day regardless of their location.

The viewer experiences the artist’s perspective of these rooms as they are. Nothing is altered or staged, not even the lighting. The authenticity of the depictions allows the series to collectively describe an engagement with a space. This uncontrived honesty towards a subject is characteristic of Al Attar’s oeuvre.

The interiors are often humble, in line with Islamic tenets and in contrast to the region’s exterior architectural opulence. Serenity and stillness are prevalent in these makeshift rooms, elevating their spatial reality as industrial caravans or rooms in malls and business centers, to that of egalitarian spiritual sanctuaries. The prayer rooms mark the passage of time directly through the ever-present, often multiple occurrence of clocks, and more imperceptibly through the awareness of the movement of the sun.

Rituals that take place before entering the rooms are inferred – ablutions and perhaps even a call to prayer. One cannot help but wonder about the individuals in these very different spaces, performing the same rites. This sense of order and togetherness offers a reprieve from the bustling chaos of urban development. Even the demarcated rows in the carpeting are a comfort.

Al Attar chronicles his surroundings and contemporary landscape, going beyond mere documentation, and engaging with issues impacting the social fabric. These empty constructs where people meet are widely scattered evidence of faith, embodying the crossover between public and private space. The locales appear obscure, but upon closer inspection provide a visual history of the artist’s rapidly developing country by presenting a cultural continuity which is rarely visible amidst overwhelming change.

About The Artist
Ammar Al Attar (1981) was born in Dubai and lives and works in Ajman. He carries a Masters in International Business from Dubai’s University of Wollongong, and a Bachelors in Business Information Technology from Dubai’s Higher Colleges of Technology. He has taken part in photography courses, both locally and internationally.

Al Attar’s series of UAE Prayer Rooms was exhibited at the 2013 Sharjah Biennial, entitled “Re:Emerge: Towards A New Cultural Cartography.” He was selected for the 2013 Artist in Residence (A.i.R.) program, a partnership between Art Dubai, London’s Delfina Foundation, the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and Tashkeel. His work has been shown throughout the UAE, and in the Thessaloniki Museum in Greece. The artist was shortlisted for the International Emerging Artist Award.

Ammar Al Attar is represented by Cuadro Fine Art Gallery in Dubai.

Video (works)

Ahmed Mater, Pelt Him!, 2012, Ed. 5 + 1 AP

Group Exhibition
Opening: Tuesday, 14th May 2013
7.30 PM – 9.30 PM
Athr Gallery

Exhibition Dates:
14th May – 13th July, 2013

Participating Artists:
Adel Abidin
Ziad Antar
Hans Op De Beeck
Ayman Yossri Daydban
Hazem Harb
Ahmed Mater
Motaz Nasr
Sami Al Turki
David Zink Yi

Since the 1960s and advancement of technology, video art has taken a prominent route to becoming a fundamental contemporary art medium. With a growing number of international and Arab artists expressing their views, Athr Gallery is proud to present Video(works), a distinctive exhibition in that it celebrates the medium of video art rather than a specific theme or topic.

This exhibition is in collaboration with Hauser & Wirth Gallery, Galleria Continua and Selma Feriani Gallery.

Image courtesy of Athr Gallery and the artist

“My Life as an Artist in Saudi Arabia”

Acclaimed artist Dorothy Boyer will be speaking to a select audience about her life as an artist in Saudi Arabia. She will be talking about her commissioned mural work here in Jeddah, and also about her own personal work.

Roshan with Figure. Watercolour on Paper. 18ins x 16ins.

If you would like to attend the talk, My Life as an Artist in Saudi Arabia by Dorothy Boyer at the Saudi Arabian Natural History Society, then contact Susie Zaidan for details at arabianaccents@yahoo.com. The event will be held on Saturday 6 April from 7:30-9:15 pm. The venue will be sent to confirmed attendees. The fee for non-members of the Saudi Arabian Natural History Society is only SR 20 and for members entrance is free.

To register, send in your name ID or Iqama number to the email address above asap. Dorothy Boyer Fine Art products will also be available for purchase at this event.

Delectable Desserts with Lama Al Khereiji

For our latest blog post, Zareen Muzaffar managed to chase down Lama Al Khereiji as she participated in the Brides Bazaar at Dar Al Hekma College held on the 5th and 6th of March 2013, and chatted with her about her love of baking.

Anyone who has been to Jeddah knows this city has an amazing variety of food to offer. International franchises and local delicacies offer a unique combination to food lovers. And who doesn’t like desserts? Making home-made desserts and baked goods is a fast growing business for home makers as well as professional connoisseurs. Lama Al Khereiji is a young and passionate chef who creates unique baked goods for her clients.

Could you resist these luscious chocolates?

“I discovered my passion for baking and dessert decoration when I was very young,” explains Lama. “I watched cooking channels and went through numerous printed recipes to begin with. Then I completed several courses to enhance my skills, and now I have more than 14 types of delicious desserts with unique presentations”.

Carrot cake – looks almost too good to eat?

For children, there is a wide variety of desserts to choose from: cupcakes, cake pops, and birthday cakes customized according to your preference of characters. For adults, there are some intricately designed cakes good for birthdays or any other special occasion.

Delightfully fun cupcakes.

She operates her business from Khalidiya district in Jeddah and one of her famous offerings include Nutella cookies, an all-time favorite for children and adults alike. Some of the popular items include Galaxy, Oreo and carrot cupcakes, Malteasers Mudcake, and pistachio cake. She also offers the famous local favourite Basbousa bites.

A cake for Oreo lovers.

Lama markets her desserts on Instagram and holds online competitions occasionally.

If you want to place an order or to inquire more about Lama’s desserts, she can be reached at 0506040909.

Turathuna “Our Heritage”

Turathuna means ‘our heritage’. This is the title of a stunning exhibition of Islamic Art and Crafts being organized in collaboration with the Consulate General of Pakistan at the Ana Special Mall from 18-21 September, 2012.

The exhibition will be inaugurated by Princess Jawaher bint Majed bin Abdul Aziz at 7:30pm on the 18th of September, 2012
There will be five categories of art work by well-known artists such as M. A. Bukhari and Mehboob Ali: Calligraphy, Islamic Architecture, Furniture, Miniature and Jewellery with calligraphic designs.

From the Turathuna website:

Turathuna will exhibit vibrant and distinctive features of Islamic art.

Calligraphy:

Calligraphy by Ibn-e-Kaleem

Arabic script has been an important constituent of Pakistan’s Islamic heritage. Among Muslims, the art of lettering is connected with religious emphasis on reading the scripture. With this emphasis, the artistic expression of Arabic script has attracted all segments of Muslim societies throughout centuries and across the Islamic world. Turathuna will highlight the continuity of tradition of calligraphy which goes back to the time of Caliph Umar Ibn Khattab (May Allah be pleased with him) and Caliph Ali (May Allah be pleased with him). In various Islamic lands this tradition has been carefully nurtured and enriched, particularly in Pakistan where it constitutes country’s primary cultural identity and heritage.

Islamic Architecture:

A painting by Mehboob Ali.

Majestic domes and minarets, ornamented pulpits of mosques and religious schools, palaces, courtyards, beautiful gardens with water fountains and fragrant roses, spacious caravanserais and tombs decorated with patterned brickwork, tile mosaic often in blue, golden and green, splendid molded mihrab facings with columnar bands of Quranic inscriptions, sophisticated geometrical and floral engravings and high ramparts. These features characterize magnificent Islamic architecture. Islamic countries including Pakistan host world’s finest Islamic architecture. The Art Expo will celebrate the glory of Islamic architecture in beautiful paintings.

Islamic Miniature:

A miniature by Najam-ul-Hassan Kazemi

The origin of miniature art is attributed to the Umayyad doctors who had commissioned painters to develop illustrated training manuals for scientific explanations. Miniature illustrations were, inter alia, utilized to show important scenes as well as acts of war and peace in popular legends and stories such as Alf Laila wa Laila, Dastaan Amir Hamza, Qissa Yusuf Zulaikha etc. With the passage of time, miniature became an integral part of Arab, Persian, Turkic and Pakistan’s Islamic art traditions. In Pakistan, it has acquired the status of national art under the rubric of the Mughal Art. The Art Expo will showcase this cultural delicacy in its true colours and technique.

Furniture:

Furniture by Bakhsh Ilahi

In many Muslim lands, craftsmen treated wood as a precious resource. They learned to use small pieces of it to great artistic advantage, elaborating such techniques as carving and marquetry, in which a surface is entirely covered with little pieces of wood veneer laid side-by-side to form patterns. Turathuna will showcase some of the exquisite pieces of furniture made in Pakistan.

Islamic jewellery by Muhammad Saleem.

The Turathuna website also provides more information about the calligraphers and the different types of calligraphy on display. You can read about the tradition of arts and crafts in Pakistan and even find a map for the exhibition. Timings for the exhibition are 10am – 1:30pm and 5 – 11pm.

For more information about Turathuna, you can check out their Facebook page and their Twitter feed.

– Sabaa Ali

Novaro

The Ana Special Mall is holding an exhibition of stunning modern art glass creations by famous Glass Master Jean-Claude Navaro.

Book Signing Event

‘Somewhere in the middle of my mind‘ is an English poetry book written by Hasan Eid featuring a group of talented Saudi poets.

The book is divided into two parts:

The first part includes Hasan’s writings in which he expresses his feelings through rhyming poetry regarding various topics that range from religion to drug addiction to his most personal thoughts.

The second part of the book features the writings of 10 Saudi poets who also contributed to the book. These wonderful group of individuals show just how much the Saudi community is blessed with writers who are gifted and talented.

The book is available at Jarir bookstore (All Saudi branches+ Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar branches)

The official book signing of ‘Somewhere in the middle of my mind’ will be on 15 February, 2011 at Bridges bookstore, Jeddah.

Saudi PMV (Plant, Machinery and Vehicles) Show

On the 7th, 8th and 9th of March, 2010 an exhibition of heavy machinery called the Saudi PMV Show was held in Jeddah displaying trucks, bulldozers, forklifts, excavators among many other gigantic pieces of heavy machinery. The venue was at Emaar’s Jeddah Gate development in the center of Jeddah located on Abdullah Street, between the Al Andalus Mall and the Haj residences. The area used to be the old Jeddah airport.

Caterpillar, represented by their local dealer, Zahid Tractor, was one of the many companies displaying their products, and they put on a show every evening open to the public. This was the view as we approached the exhibition:

We took our seats and music began blaring from the surrounding speakers. The Caterpillar drivers brought out the huge machines and began to excavate the massive mounds of earth, fill dump trucks, bulldoze the hills and then flatten the area, all synchronized and moving to the music:

After the show had ended, Zahid Tractor handed out gift bags and we went to look at the standing machinery on display. The kids were fascinated by the sheer size of the machines and were lucky enough to have a go sitting inside the driving seats.

This was the third year running for the exhibition and not only was it a big hit for suppliers, customers and enthusiasts, but good fun for all the family.