Threaded with love

Dubai-based Fadwa Al Qasem specialises in making beautiful chokers from beads and semi-precious stones. All her pieces are handmade and most are unique. Since childhood beads have held a mystery for Fadwa. She wanted to unravel their poignant beauty by creating something that was unique and aesthetically appealing.

Fadwa, a Palestinian born in Libya and brought up in London, works essentially with beads of all kinds. Precious beads, glass beads, wooden beads, and plastic beads. If she does not find the right kind of bead required for a piece that she is creating she just goes ahead and makes her own bead. The end result exquisite chokers, the progeny of an East-West mix, shrouded in femininity and mystery, bold and unblushing.

Her idea is to paint with beads and create pieces of jewellery. Using semi-precious stones, Venetian style hand-painted glass beads, beautiful lamp beads, faceted crystals, and other beads specially designed for her to help her create one-of-a-kind or limited edition pieces.

She is well-travelled and sources her beads from all over the world. Beads from Canada, the U.S., the UK, Turkey, Jordan, Dubai, India and France are brought together to create a necklace which ultimately adorns the neck of a lady.

Fadwa particularly enjoys designing chokers. Is there a fixation with chokers? "Chokers impart instant glamour to a person's personality," says Fadwa. She also makes matching earrings to go with most of her chokers and if requested, she is happy to create bracelets to match too.