Lemon Aid
Jewellery for good and for drinking glasses by Beit Collective and Alexandra Hakim (image: Fabian Frinzel).
When inspiration strikes, it doesn’t care what time it is. “Alex called me very late at night and told me she had the best idea,” recounts Emilie Skaff, founder of Beirut-based Beit Collective. “She said: ‘Let’s do a lemon! It’ll be amazing.’”
The seed of Citrus Charm came to jewellery designer and maker Alexandra Hakim in a bar in Madrid, the city where she lives and works. “I was working late at the studio and met up with friends for a cocktail afterwards,” Hakim recalls. “The idea of making jewellery to adorn drinks glasses came to mind. It was something that I felt the need to share with Emilie immediately.”
Skaff had asked Hakim to use her skills to create homeware pieces for Beit Collective, an initiative devised in response to the multiple emergencies that are besetting their home country of Lebanon, not least its ongoing financial crisis. After the 17 October Revolution in 2019, Skaff, who had just quit her job in a London gallery, returned to Beirut determined to set up a project that would benefit the Lebanese craft community.
Beit Collective was in its infancy when disaster hit the city, already crippled economically and by Covid. On 4 August 2020 an explosion at a warehouse in Beirut’s port caused by improperly stored ammonium nitrate killed more than 200 people and caused enormous damage to people’s homes and businesses. As she joined in the rebuilding effort, Skaff saw a chance to continue the mutual aid movement she witnessed. “Even though it was horrible, it was incredible,” she says. “Everybody that wasn’t affected by the explosion went down to help,” she adds. “You had all the artisans coming into the city, ready to fix your doors and windows.”
Through Beit Collective, Skaff connects Lebanese artisans – who tend to be located in industrial zones outside the capital – with designers. Together they create homeware products (“Beit” means “home” in Hebrew) that reflect Lebanese culture and craft, selling them to an overseas audience to bring in dollars, euros and pounds – essential when the Lebanese lira has lost 98 per cent of its value since the economic crisis began in 2019. “We’re creating jobs, we’re paying artisans in foreign currency,” explains Skaff. “We’re creating a new parallel economy with these products. An artisan called me the other day, saying ‘I want to thank you, because I just bought a house.’”
When a friend of a friend mentioned that they knew a metalsmith, Sako Der Artinian, who specialises in sand casting, Skaff knew she had to connect them with Hakim. “In Lebanon, everything is word of mouth,” Skaff says. Hakim had worked with sand casting in her student days, and was delighted to have a meeting of minds with a fellow metalworker. “Sako is great! He’s kind and professional,” says Hakim. “Collaborations are much smoother when you fully understand the process and the materials behind the work.”
Hakim had already used citrus fruit in a previous jewellery collection, turning lemon seeds into spiky ear cuffs and lime rinds into golden bangles. Now, the Citrus Charms provide the charming illusion of lemon slices perched on the rim of a drink. In creating jewellery for the home, Hakim has also honoured one of Lebanon’s precious resources. “There’s nothing ready-made here. Artisans are the foundation of our country,” says Skaff. “They are the jewels of Lebanon.”
Words India Block
Photograph Fabian Frinzel
This article was originally published in Disegno #36. To buy the issue, or subscribe to the journal, please visit the online shop.