Jewellery is a medium that you want to express yourself artistically. An interview with Nedda El-Asmar

Elena Karpilova: How did you get into jewellery?
Nedda El-Asmar: I started studying jewellery design and silversmithing, but I quickly realized I was more interested in objects. In my second year of the BA, I started creating more objects than jewellery. After four years, I graduated and soon understood that making a living from one of pieces in silver and selling contemporary silverware wasn’t sustainable.

I asked Jean Lemmens, my tutor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, how I could develop further in this direction. He told me about two options: Konstfack in Stockholm, which accepts six students per year, and the Royal College of Art in London, which takes about 10–12. I thought Stockholm was too cold and the competition too high, so I decided to apply to the RCA—without knowing much about it at the time. I applied with no funding secured, and was accepted. Luckily, the funding came afterward, which allowed me to fully dedicate my time to studying.
Because I wasn’t focused on money, I could fully dedicate myself to the two years of my Master’s studies. The tutors at the time were Michael Rowe and David Watkins, and we had many visiting tutors, including Onno Boekhoudt, Allan Scharff, Daniel Kruger.


Nedda El-Asmar during studies in RCA, 1992



EK: How did you start collaborating with companies?
NEA: When I was studying in RCA, we had to design a project, but we weren’t allowed to make it ourselves. We could only create prototypes, technical drawings, and calculate how many pieces could be produced and how long it would take and cost. In the second year, you’d have two technicians assigned to you for ten days to produce a small batch of your design. That experience made me realize I didn’t have to make the pieces myself—I could design for companies as well.

I started to visit Paris and working as a freelancer for Puiforcat, then with Hermès. For fifteen years, I’ve been working for different companies such as Villeroy & Boch, Robbe & Berking, Gense etc.
Nedda El-Asmar: Demianka for Hermès, 2006. Photo by Patrick Burban. 


How did I make contacts back then? I carried a big physical portfolio with mounted slides in the back of it, so these slides could later be viewed by the company’s representatives. You’d go to a phone booth with a bag of coins, look up contacts in the Yellow Pages—like Puiforcat or Christofle—and call them: “I’m in Paris, can I stop by to show my portfolio? I studied in London…” You’d get an appointment, and that’s how you presented your work.

Life was slower then. Companies were more opened to experiment—we developed projects together. Today, it’s much harder for young designers. Companies receive so many designs every day; they can choose. Many companies are on the stock market now—they need to show returns to shareholders.



EK: In your opinion, what is the greatest similarity and the greatest difference between the professions of product designer and jeweller?
NEA: A product designer is someone trained to create items for the market that improve daily life — that’s a pure product designer. With jewellery, it all depends on how you see it: is it just an accessory for decoration, or does it carry the memory of a life event — a birth, a wedding? That’s a completely different matter. In any case, jewellery can be a medium for artistic expression.

If you ask me whether I’m a product designer, I’d say no — I wasn’t trained to think like one. It’s a different mindset. For example, if a product designer is asked to design cutlery, they receive a detailed brief: what materials to use, which market to target (local or international), budget constraints, etc. The profession is, in fact, full of restrictions, and that is a challenge.
You also need to ask yourself: do I want to create products that already exist on the market with only slight variations, or do I want to push boundaries? The latter introduces artistic value into the product.

In jewellery, you can choose: are you working with your hands, or are you only designing. If it’s the first — you’re more a jewellery maker. If it’s the second — you’re more a designer, and your product just happens to be jewellery. If you do both you then can decide if you use jewellery as an artistic medium. There are numerous ways to develop professionally in jewellery.
What is an extra value in jewellery design as we see it nowadays is the deep knowledge of materials it requires. You don’t just work with gold or silver, there are so many different materials.


Studio of Nedda El-Asmar in Antwerp, 2025. Photo: Elena Karpilova


EK: Which designers, architects, or jewelers have had the most influence on your professional approach and philosophy?
NEA: Tapio Wirkkala. He created a wide range of products and had his own aesthetic, artistic and functional thinking approach to design. He was both an artist and a product designer, working across furniture, cutlery, and even jewellery. Many of his designs are timeless — that’s what inspires me. For example, his sculptural dish from 1962 could easily be designed today.
Silver Dish by Tapio Wirkkala, Finland, 1962.


EK: Maybe some other names?
NEA: No, for me it’s always Wirkkala.


EK:Could you tell me what you're currently working on?
NEA: I'm working on a research project about dematerializing mentally the value of gold. How we could treat fine gold (999,9) simply as a material, like water, paint, or paper—something you use freely for creative expression without thinking of its value. Gold is the most recycled material since Roman times. When you speak about gold, people fall silent—it’s a material that has shaped history, language, and value systems. It's so culturally loaded. Yet, there are many other materials that are far more essential to our lives than gold.

Last year, the first publication of the research, Questions to Objects, was published. It’s an art-critical essay written by Vlad Ionescu and designed by Walda Verbaenen. It doesn’t describe my work or specific objects—it explores the concept behind the project.

Since I didn’t have gold myself, I decided to borrow it. Many people own golden jewellery they’re no longer emotionally attached to, so they can lend it to me. These pieces are melted down, refined into gold grains, and then I create new objects from them. The objects are exhibited and sold.
I began the project in 2021 when gold was priced around 42–43 euros per gram—now it’s doubled. Along the way, I want to understand what is my added value is as a designer—beyond just using a precious material.

On the last day of the exhibition, all unsold pieces will be melted down, and the gold will be returned to the lenders. If I’ve sold enough work, I can afford to buy gold to return. But can I manage that? That uncertainty is part of the concept—the emotional and financial burden of gold.
People continue to lend me jewellery to this day.



EK: What differences do you see between the education you received and the current state of education?
NEA: We worked with our hands much more than students do today. But I understand that now students have to learn so much more, including digital tools. I learned gradually over time, but today they’re expected to know everything in just a couple of years.

We didn’t have the Internet or mobile phones, so it was easier to focus. I don’t think we should be afraid of AI — we should study it and use it. But the focus now is everywhere and nowhere. Students are much more on their own.
Life has never been easy. When I graduated, there were no jobs — it was a crisis. I remember 1986–1987. I was ready to take any job. We always had to work — otherwise, you’d end up with nothing. Maybe our generation went too far in one direction, but now we need to find balance.



EK: What is your approach to educating students? What’s your secret?
NEA: I try to pass on passion to my students. Curiosity is essential — you have to be like a sponge, absorbing as much as possible. It’s also important to make things, to touch, to feel them and then see what happens, not just keep ideas in your head. You need to bring ideas into real, three-dimensional objects.

As a student, you need to know the historical context, be curious about other fields, and not be afraid of being influenced by something created before. You shouldn’t worry about inventing something new — if it comes from you, it’s already authentic. You’re interpreting it through your own context and experiences. 

I also believe students should go beyond the university and see as much as they can. How else can you understand what the world is about? I remember my first visit to Ambiente, the big trade fair where companies showcase their products. I camped in a tent just to be there — I wanted to understand what was happening in the field.



EK: Could you share a couple of specific examples of your favorite assignments that you've given to students?
NEA: At PXL-MAD, our department is called Object and Jewellery, and our guiding principle is: “Back to the things themselves.” It's about objects and the meaning they carry, and jewellery are objects as well.
This year, together  with David Huycke we dedicated a semester-long project for second-year BA students to the theme of tableware. We invited a chef, who introduced us to Alexandre Dumas’ Dictionary of Cuisine. The same Dumas who wrote The Three Musketeers later became passionate about cooking and wrote this extensive book on food. Vlad Ionescu, a teacher of art history and philosophy, gave a lecture on the meaning of the book in those times.

Students read the introduction and attended a lecture by Karolina Stefanski on historical table settings. I showed them a variety of historical cutlery — over 120 types — to highlight how much of this knowledge has been forgotten.

Then the students began their own design process. Students began to work as a group together and gave themselves a design brief. At the center there was a “conversation piece” — an object sparking dialogue. The chosen theme was respect, and each student interpreted it personally: respect for food, for communal eating, for slowing down and savoring a meal.


A view on the whole installation of BA students in PXL-MAD dedicated to the research of the tableware, 2025, photo courtesy by author.


Tosca Ipers and Kayra Rommen: Conversation Piece, 2025. Photo courtesy by author. 


Linne Houben: Conversation Piece, 2025. Photo courtesy by author.


Rune Vervoort: Conversation Piece, 2025. Photo courtesy by author.


They built their installations using both found and crafted by themselves objects. This taught them not only how to make individual pieces, but how to compose a narrative and present it as a whole.
Each year, we dedicate one semester to objects, because jewellery is an object, too. Many objects we use daily — like cutlery — are body-related, just like jewellery. We want our students to understand these connections, to learn through making, thinking, looking, and feeling. As tutors, we guide them, help them find the links — but ultimately, the work is theirs to do.



EK: What about collaborations between students and other people or brands?
NEA: While working at the Royal Academy in Antwerp, I developed an assignment where students were asked to create a jewellery piece for two people. For example, we designed wedding rings for Ted Noten and his partner, for Valeria Vallarta Siemelink and Chequita Nahar, and for Walter van Beirendonck and Marnic Smessaert One time, students made jewellery for Carin Reinders, director of  CODA — that was unique, as she imagined two avatars instead of the second person.


Eline De Winter: Marry Ted Noten, 2014. Photo by Elyane Van Coillie.


Julia Mercier, Fien Verbeke: Carin & Karin, 2018. Photo by Elyane Van Coillie.


Thanks to Naomi Filmer, in 2018–2019 we carried out a collaboration between our students and YKK, the Japanese company known for producing zippers. The project was themed around surrealism, and the final pieces were exhibited in YKK’s London showroom windows.

Adelina Cioanca: Unzipping memories, 2019. Photo by Max Laurent De Cock.



Lena D'Hoore: Fill me up, 2019. Photo by Laurent-Max De Cock.


Back in 2010–2011, we also collaborated with Hermès. The students were asked to rethink the classic tie. The results were later exhibited in the Hermès showroom in Paris.

Stefanie Heyvaer: CuriosiTies, 2014. Photo by Laurent Max De Cock​.


EK: We spoke a lot about education. Could you tell us what, in your view, should be added to education in contemporary jewellery?
NEA: Time – but it’s an utopian dream. People no longer take the time to learn something. Everything is driven by the need to achieve the end result as quickly as possible, and students think that result is expected to be perfect from the first attempt. But that’s not possible. We ask students to understand and engage with art, philosophy, techniques, and much more. There’s so much for them to grasp! And now, with new technology on top of it all, they need twice as much time.

In my day, to read something, there was no Internet. You had to go to the library. You traveled to gather your information, and that journey itself was part of the experience. You saw the library as a space, searched through real physical books, and heard things around you. Today, there’s no journey to acquiring knowledge – it’s just the screen, and you’re sitting and typing. The experience is lost.

 

About the Interviewee

Nedda El-Asmar studied Jewellery Design, Gold & Silversmithing at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and completed her education at the Royal College of Art in London. Her work is defined by openness, versatility, and a refined balance between tradition and innovation. Her collaborations include prestigious names such as Hermès, Puiforcat, Villeroy & Boch, Serax, and Maison Vervloet, among others.
Named Designer of the Year in 2007, Nedda worked in partnership with Erik Indekeu from 2008 to 2017. From 2007 to 2019, she led the Jewellery Design department at the Royal Academy in Antwerp and now serves as course leader and senior lecturer at PXL-MAD, School of Arts in Hasselt.

Website: https://www.nedda.be/

About the author

Elena Karpilova was born in Belarus in 1987. Since 2022, she has lived in Lisbon, Portugal. From 2005–2009, she studied art at Glebov Art College as fine artist (Belarus); from 2010–2016 she studied at the University of Culture and Arts (Belarus) as a comparative art critic. She is an art critic, an artist, and the head of an interdisciplinary project for children and youth, the Architectural Thinking School for Children, which now works in Portugal with families of migrants. “Due to a lack of education in the jewelry field in Belarus," says Karpilova, "I've been studying the subject on my own." Writer, content maker for ArtJewelryForum. Member of PIN association, Portugal. Member AGC (Association of Contemporary Jewellery), Italy. Finalist of the AGC Italy - Association of Contemporary Jewellery's Maria Cristina Bergesio Award 2024. Participant of Lisbon Jewelry Biennial 2024 as curator of L’étrangère project. 

Website: https://elenakarpilova.com/
Instagram: @karpilova