Crafts and products made by hard working Egyptian women, doing their best to prove themselves, delivering their products to the people of Aswan and local and international exhibitions.
Inside Durrat Al-Nile Plaza Park, facing the General Office of Aswan Governorate, Ayadi Misr Exhibition participants have gathered exhibiting their miscellaneous handicrafts they made from palm trees, Arquette wood, crochet, and beads.
We listened to some of the women’s stories talking about the first time they took interest in crafts making, especially the handicrafts, struggling until they managed to exhibit their products.
Coming from Al-Jaafra village, following Drau town in Aswan, Nesreen Mohamed, who participated before in other local exhibitions, clarifies that she started working in the field of handicrafts ten years ago, “I’m part of Al-Nour Women Organisation in Al-Jaafra village, which provides women with empowering projects, among them the handicrafts”.
“I participate in the exhibition with products made from palm trees like palm leaves and wicker, and during the years our work progressed, instead of making traditional Nubian plates, we added new products we learned from training workshops to revive Aswan heritage,” added Nesreen.
Aswan organises Ayadi Misr Exhibition for Handicrafts on margin of celebrating its 53rd National Day, this January from 20th to 22nd.
90 people from 20 governorates participate in the exhibition, exhibiting 35 heritage handicrafts like Sinai bags, carpets, pottery, and wicker products.
Sabrine Abdullah, from Aswan, participates in the exhibition with products she made from palm trees, such as bags, wicker, and beads. She started her handicrafts business five years ago with the help of her son Mohamed who makes jewellery from copper, he learned this craft in a workshop in Cairo as there are no copper workshops in Aswan.
“I self-learned this craft over the internet and joined some workshops, I bought the raw materials in order to make different products and market them on social media. I participated in the last exhibition and it was a good experience, so I decided to participate again”, said Sabrine.
Then she added, “publicity is an important factor, if I sell only two pieces in the exhibition, I find it an opportunity to get to know a new customer with whom I can connect with later. What makes Ayadi Misr Exhibition special is that it provides us with transportation and financial support, unlike other exhibitions in which we pay for accommodation and transportation”.
“Yet I hope that the exhibition will continue during the next three months which is considered as the winter tourism season and a good opportunity to increase the demand. Also, providing a fixed place to exhibit the products will offer good advertising, for we have to travel outside Aswan to market our products ourselves”, said Sabrine.
Ain Alaswany monitored that, coinciding with the winter tourism season, the exhibition has witnessed an average demand from tourists and Aswan citizens where it was held in an open area and places designated for the exhibitors in the park.
Talking with Heba Hussein, a decoupage crafts maker from Port Said, she told us that she started self-learning this craft nine years ago over the internet and participating in workshops to improve her skill. She started participating in exhibitions inside and outside Port Said.
Heba talks about her experience with Ayadi Misr Exhibition, saying “I participated in many exhibitions before, and I faced here the same problem I find in every exhibition I take part in which is poor publicity; people come here by coincidence and wonder what are we doing and get surprised to find it is a heritage crafts exhibition”.
She says that each participant in the exhibition works in a field of a disappearing heritage craft that doesn’t get enough credit, so publicity is rather imperative and has to be done long before the exhibition starts.
Commenting on what makes the exhibition special, Heba says, “accommodation and transportation are totally covered by the exhibition which helps us in offering our products for reasonable prices, there are other exhibitions where I pay the full expense of transportation and accommodation which forces me to add this extra cost on the products’ prices”.
Abeer Ismael, a participant from Red Sea governorate, clarifies that this year’s version of the exhibition is better than last year that was held in Sheraton Park on the Nile Corniche, for the demand is better as it is held in an open are and people can notice the presence of an exhibition, also it is not held in a secluded place.
Concerning the products Abeer exhibits this year, Abeer says, “I work with beads, resin, and do handicrafts; the final product has to come out in a good shape so people would buy it. Exhibitions are good opportunities to market my products, but handicrafts workers need help overall in marketing their products”.
Assiut participates by exhibiting various pieces of clothing embroidered with the Assiut Tulle bi telli on black fabric; Nahed Farghaly, the coordinator of Ayadi Misr in Assiut Governorate, explains that exhibitions form a good opportunity for products’ marketing and opening new markets, thus an incentive to attract young people to work in handicrafts.
Commenting on the Tulle bi telli, she says, “it requires exhausting hard work that needs precision; the craftsman may injure their fingers as they deal with metal, and in return they need to sell their products and not leave them to be ruined in order to continue doing this craft and just work as taxi drivers choosing an easier work. We hope there will be fixed outlets for selling the products with good marketing plan. Tulle bi telli is sold in the Gulf at double it price here”.
