About

Hi!

My name is Lihi and I am a graphic designer, illustrator, and jewelry maker.

 I always knew that long ago, before immigrating to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet, my grandfather was a jeweler. It was years after his passing, however, that I discovered jewelry made by him that survived the journey from Yemen to Israel.

Like any Yemenite artwork, here too was jewelry rich with detail, bold and yet delicate. Although hardly any corner is free of ornamentation, I still recognized restraint, delicacy, precision, and endless patience in the work. Back then the phrase “time is money” did not exist or was of any factor in the creation process.

I thought about how amazing the difference is between what he did in Israel, paving roads to make a living, and this delicate handicraft. How did he feel about doing such delicate handwork in Yemen, and such rough labor here?

He never spoke about it; I only know that my uncle, his eldest son, once bought him new jewelry-making tools so he could return to the work he loved so much, but for some reason my grandpa refused. He never created a single piece of jewelry in Israel.

It is interesting how the dream of immigrating to Israel almost severed a culture, a tradition, and ancient, centuries-old handcraft. Could that have been the price? It stayed with me.

Over the years I started reading about the history of Yemenite jewelry-making, buying and devouring literature, and eventually studying Yemenite Jewelry design with a goldsmith named Ronen Sharabi.

My designs are the result of all those years; I design out of love for the artwork of Yemeni Jews, and a desire to give it a contemporary expression.

The collection is not a time capsule or a wish for preservation, but a continuance of the old art form with an inevitable filter of a third-generation Israeli artist; it takes on the characteristics of the Yemenite jewelry language, disassembling and reassembling it. Filtered through the eyes of contemporary “Western Culture”, this collection strives to conserve and revive a piece of the Yemeni Jews’ rich culture, while realizing that time stands still for no one, not even the artist herself.