Ruby Elmhirst is a creative producer, working with sustainable and socially conscious designers, artists and brands on unique projects across an array of mediums. Originally from London, her family lives between rural Jamaica and New York. This contrast has vastly informed her mission to promote opportunity, acceptance, education and diversity within design. For this edit she shares her interior wishlist as we get into winter and spend more time indoors.
I have always been interested in the spaces that we spend time in and how design impacts our lived experience. In this era of fast homeware, I am particularly drawn to rooms layered with passed along pieces and handmade objects.
Whether it is found, thrifted or created and regardless of minimalist design or abundant maximalism, I think that choosing thoughtful possessions not only benefits the environment and supports craftsmanship, but gives me a more rooted sense of place.
Glasses were my first introduction to Ishkar and my mother has been a long term fan of Ishkar’s glassware. Herati glass is known for its mesmerizing vibrant and distinct colors, but more than that I love the individual shapes which serve as a reminder that imperfection can be far more unique and valuable.
This piece takes master artisans in Afghanistan around four months to weave from Ghazni wool, drawing on the age-old craft of the Kuchi tribe. So often, we see these designs replicated by other homeware brands with no reference to the historic significance and source cultures. I love that this piece is not only beautiful but supports the continuation of a traditional craft.
This photography book shares images by dozens of Afghan street and portrait photographers who have used the handmade instant camera over the last seventy years. What is interesting is that the mode of production is just as engaging as the result as the Kamra-e-faoree’s are unique and beautiful objects in themselves.
These linen napkins are a favorite. Malaika’s embroidery school, Threads of Hope, trains vulnerable women so they can be self-employed and work from home on commissions. The label also works flexibly, so that each piece is a collaborative effort and each artisan can work to her own strength.
This vest is hand-crocheted in Bekaa by Lamsa (‘touch’ in Arabic), a collective of Syrian and Lebanese women. Each vest takes two days to craft by combining traditional Syrian and modern crochet techniques from the artisans’ imaginations. A major reason I became interested in sustainable methods of production was because of embroidery, which, similar to crochet, is also historically a way in which artisans would pass along messages and express themselves creatively.
This necklace is made by Tamara Hajjir, a graduate from the Turquoise Mountain program. I worked with Turquoise Mountain on a project a while back and was really inspired by the organization's work with local restorative projects that give opportunities to artisans in the form of training programmes for both existing and next generation artisans.
I had never heard of Bamiyan Turquoise before (its scientific name is Chrysocolla) but the colour is captivating. The artisans that create these pieces cannot be named or credited since the Taliban takeover, but the sheer fact that they are still able to practice their art and create such beautiful objects is inspirational.
A collaboration with photographer and model Skye Jones, our new ring collection harnesses the beauty and power of horses, while paying homage to the rich history of Central Asian equestrian traditions.
They call it the heartland of the Taliban. But for over 3000 years it has been Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and Greek — long before the Kalashnikov was invented.
Before Michelangelo, before da Vinci—Herat was already shaping the world. This ancient city sparked a renaissance before Florence—a place most have never even heard of, let alone seen.
Around 17,000 people once worked in the trade; now there is only one company left, with no apprentices. It’s hard not to feel misty eyed about the loss of this tradition. After all, it's a story we’re familiar with.
A shipment of one of our wooden Jali trays was recently held by Border Force. When we finally received the package, we unwrapped the packaging to find that Border Force had drilled a small hole through the tray.
For the Print Sale for EMERGENCY 2022, some of the photographers are offering one-off prints as NFTs, some for the first time!Including Matthieu Paley, Glen Wilde & Michael Christopher Brown.
On the 15th of August 2021, Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. As the world looked on, ISHKAR launched a sale of photographic prints to raise money for EMERGENCY Hospitals in Afghanistan. Like you, thousands of generous people contributed.
One year later the world’s attention has moved on. However the situation in Afghanistan is getting worse and worse. We’ve teamed up with an amazing group of photographers to run the print sale again. This is our opportunity to show Afghanistan that we still care. That we have not forgotten. This is our chance to direct crucial aid to where it is needed most.
Selma Dabbagh is a British Palestinian lawyer, novelist and short story writer. We asked Selma which ISHKAR pieces are inspiring her this winter. See here selection here:
Now is not the time to stop reading, talking and thinking about Afghanistan. The situation continues to worsen by the day. So we've put together a few actions that you can take to make sure the world doesn't turn its back on Afghanistan, when it needs us all the most.
This summer we will be hosting different pop ups on London's Columbia Road, home to some of London's best restaurants, street bars and independent boutiques. Combine your pop up visit with some of these local highlights:
How, we are often asked, can a box of six glasses made in Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, be sold in London for £80? In this blog post we aim to show you who gets what and why.
This is the time for facts, not fear. This is the time for science, not rumours. This is the time for solidarity, not stigma. We are all in this together, and we can only stop it together.
A guest blog by Lucy Fisher I would like to hazard a guess that the first image which comes to mind when asked to think of Afghanistan is probably not a garden in full bloom, carefully tended to by a team of dedicated local gardeners. Despite the horrific turmoil...
A guest blog by Louis Prosser After almost four years of incalculable destruction and suffering in Yemen, you might think that the last sparks of beauty and creativity had been crushed. You would be wrong.Ibi Ibrahim is a 31-year-old artist working mainly in photography and film. He is Yemeni,...
‘I don’t care if you’re in Timbuktu,’ we might say. ‘You’ll be here tomorrow or else!’ Or perhaps, ‘He’s flirted with every girl from here to Timbuktu!’ It means something like God Knows Where, or A Million Miles Away.
'Bebinin, bebinin,' insisted Parsa. I was in the royal city of Esfahan, which the Persians call 'nesf-e jahan' ('half of the world'). In a cramped bazar beneath soaring domes and arches, I was in a world of carpets. 'Look, look: apache, apache!’ The word rang a bell (an American tribe?) but it took me a few seconds to see. It was a truly beautiful piece.
The Pin Project is an initiative ISHKAR launched on Kickstarter last year. We raised over £63,000 to provide jewellery training and work for displaced people living in Burkina Faso, Turkey, Jordan and Afghanistan.
As humans, we crave order. For many, productive work provides this structure. The world around us might be chaotic. But with work we can, at least at times, control what we do in a way we are rarely able in other parts of life.
At the beginning of this year, Flore and I found ourselves at the world trade fair for homewares, Maison et Objet in Paris. After a morning of walking through the colossal trade halls we were quite frankly bored of looking at objects. We were just about to escape and get a coffee when we came across Sebastian Cox’s stand.
Once a hipster trend, the desire for handmade goods has become thoroughly mainstream. It can be seen from the meteoric rise of Etsy, right through to proliferation of the word ‘artisan’ on products ranging from shoes to bread. Handmade products tend to be more expensive, and by no means assure better ‘quality’, so what’s all the fuss about?
As wedding season approaches, we have been getting an increasing number of exasperated customers asking when our most popular glasses will be back in stock again. Well, here's the honest answer – we have NO idea.
I remember singing a nursery rhyme about Timbuktu when I was in primary school. I can’t remember what it was now – was it ‘from Kalamazoo to Timbuktu’? – but I remember the images clearly. A fabled desert city at the end of the world where Arabs and Africans would meet to trade salt and gold, and in the cool of enormous mud structures blue robed scholars would scribble marginalia in great gold embossed manuscripts.
Yet we would be wrong to think of crafts as a small sector at the fringes of the global economy. Far from it, crafts are in fact the second largest employer in the developing world, and have a proven track record of leading a number of developing world countries towards developed world status.
The World Bank has ranked Afghanistan, as the 177th easiest country in which to do business with in the world. Unfortunately that was out of 188 economies. Here’s a quick barrage of some more dismal figures… In 2014 Afghanistan’s economy lost a third of its value, and annual economic growth slowed from 14% down to 1.5% where it hovers around today.
Every now and then a short video or article pops up on our newsfeed which tells a captivating story about Afghanistan or Syria that has nothing to do with war. For a couple of minutes we are reminded that countries like Afghanistan and Syria are home to talented, energetic people whose lives are not solely defined by the circumstances of the country in which they live. It’s a nice reminder, but we return to our day, forgetting about what we watched or read shortly after.
