Event type

fair

Event Location

Show date

November 6, 2022  to   November 18, 2022

About

INLAYING

The art of inlaying is the insertion of a chosen material into a depressed surface carved in wood in order to create specific ornamentation. Among the most important materials used in inlaying are: ivory, mother of pearl, and precious woods like ebony. with the success of the ban on killing the elephants, ivory has been replaced by p.v.c. which gives similar appearance.

The mother of pearl goes through many operations. The abrasive wheel is used to get rid of the outer side of the mother of pearl till it becomes only one or two mm. thick, then it is divided into strips of less than one cm wide. The inlayer uses a fine saw, that he himself makes, to cut the mother of pearl and other materials into tiny pieces of specific dimensions and angles, to be glued in the carved spaces, so that they create geometrical or floral traditional decorations.

The inlaying may be applied in the small panels of the interlocking joinery or in the frames of the work. It may cover the whole surface or only some areas. The art of inlaying is often used in furniture

Pottery Making

«Pottery making»...a craft that accompanies man, and dates back to the pre-dynastic era in Egypt, and the ancient Egyptians were the first to take care of it, and reached a high degree of accuracy and perfection, starting with food utensils and decorative tools, until the coffins of the dead, so they raised a pottery craftsman «Al-Fakhrani» reached the highest position that a simple craftsman can reach. Egyptians still practice the craft of pottery, which is an indication of cultural diversity. Each region in Egypt has a special character in the formation of pottery-producing utilities for human uses, from the Delta to Upper Egypt to the Oases. From the mud, the hands of Egyptian craftsmen produced pottery that supports the Egyptian heritage with its richness and diversity, and the Egyptian pottery craftsman “Al-Fakhrani” developed its products to suit the modern needs with his keenness on the continuation of the characteristics, material, and symbols that express his culture.

Brass and copper

The brass and copper may be inlaid with gold and silver using a steal chisel, the artist first creates a groove in the surface of the brass, then hammers one end of the wire to fix it at the beginning of the groove, he continues hammering the wire along the groove until it occupies the whole space, he repeats this act in all neighboring grooves thus creating parallel lines of the precious metal. Using the other end of his hammer’s head he continues hammering parallel lines till the lines give the appearance of a flat piece of the precious metal as if welded to the brass, The artist may use the steal chisel to crave floral or geometrical decorations in the silver or gold surface

Brass can be used to cast floral or geometrical decorations to be fixed on main doors of important buildings

jewellery

Gold & silver

Pure gold is too soft to be used to produce jewelry, copper zinc and other metals are added to produce a hard alloy for the manufacture of  jewelry, silver also is not used in jewelry in its pure form as ally is used.

The mount of pure gold in an alloy defines the degree of its fineness expressed in «karats» the whole alloy is supposed to be 24 karats.

The jeweller prepares the alloys in his workshop and casts them in molds, as gold and silver are malleable. The jeweller puts alloy in simple machine which through the pressure of rollers turns the alloy to any thickness he desire or even wiredraws it.

Out of gold and silver alloys the artist makes the bracelet the earrings the necklace the chain the ring …. etc. he also sets precious stones in ouches on rings and other items of jewelry

Hagaza

Woodwork

Hagaza is a big village situated 700 km south of Cairo, listed among the the oldest villages of Egypt, It was the main passage in the eastern desert crossed by pilgrims to Al-Hegaz (Islamic Holy Land) in the Arabian peninsula, from which the name Hagaza was derived.

Woodwork was one of the main occupations known to the people of Hagaza, where more than 100 families work.

Most of the Egyptian wood products are manufactured and designed according to old Pharaonic, Roman, Coptic and Islamic original pieces , displayed in the Louvre Museum (Paris), The British Museum (London) and others

Akhmim

Akhmim is located in the heart of the Nile Valley in Upper Egypt, 450 km south of Cairo and on the eastern bank of the Nile in front of Sohag. It is considered one of the oldest cities in the world whose location has not changed since four thousand years. Akhmim has been known since the Pharaonic era for its distinctive textiles made of silk, linen and wool, and then from cotton in modern times. It was also known for its embroidery with silk, silver and gold threads to add more aesthetic values ​​to its textiles.

Young women and women of the village worked on embroidering drawings of birds, trees, palms, farmers, markets and others. A new type of plastic art was born based on free and spontaneous artistic embroidery with silk threads on cotton cloth colored in certain colors to work on embroidery that were not available in Akhmim stores, until hand looms were installed to produce them. The Akhmim women worked on the loom for the first time in the history of the industry.

The Senet

It's one of the oldest games in history, it existed even before chess, Japanese shogi, and other board games, it is the Senet. It was considered the game of kings and locals in Ancient Egypt, all the same. Also, it was found on tomb walls, and among the belongings of the dead, which shows us how the Senet was very important in the Ancient Egyptian history.

GebRaa with its partner Karama are the first to revive the Senet and launch it in the National Museum of Civilization in October 2021 and sell it in different places such as the National Museum of Civilization.

Following our path, the Egyptian ministry of tourism and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation introduced the Senet to the world on world chess day.

Senet is more than a game, it's a philosophy of life, and now Egypt is reviving the Senet after GebRaa's efforts to show how important the Senet is as part of our Egyptian Identity.