Nouakchott -
From inside her family's house in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, the young plastic artist Ilham Mohamed was able to launch her small project with primitive means to create innovative artistic designs and produce beautiful sculptural works and paintings from "resin".
Ilham challenged all obstacles in order to be self-reliant, and to provide for herself and her family a significant material income through this project, violating all societal norms within her surroundings that restrict women's freedom.
The traditional customary customs of the people here do not allow Mauritanian women to break into major economic activities, and mothers always strive to teach their daughters housekeeping skills such as cooking, preparing tea and cleaning skills.
Despite belonging to a conservative family, she insisted on occupying a place among the creative people in the field of modern design, and through the “resin” material, she provided innovative designs for her customers on demand from inside her small room, and she used her pages on social networking sites to promote her products, and took her as a window overlooking the outside world. .
Medals designed by Elham include letters and some pieces of decoration (Al-Jazeera)
chance profession
The girl, who obtained a "Technology in Accounting and Management" certificate, was not up to date with her new profession when she was touring the Instagram world about two years ago, and Ilham tells Al Jazeera Net how the coincidence was, she says, "Suddenly I saw a journalist on Instagram promoting resin products. I didn't know anything about it at the time, but I thought of it as a design project that could provide me with an income from home, and I searched the Internet and watched educational videos until I got to know it and decided to start working."
And when we asked her why the resin in particular?
Ilham says that all the designers in resin in the world today are originally plastic artists and master the drawing, and drawing has been my hobby since childhood, and it is somewhat related to design with resin.
She adds, "What I wanted was its hardness, resistance to friction, preservation of fine art paintings, isolation and prevention of damage."
In a short period of time, the artist turned into a designer in this field, and now she provides a variety of products, such as medals for keys with the names of their owners, paintings for decoration and wall decoration, trays for home use and offering incense, and pieces for festive and birthday occasions, and other designs on demand.
A side of the accessories that Ilham uses in manufacturing (Al-Jazeera)
Challenges and difficulties
Ilham faced many challenges in the past, and others she still suffers from. At first, the family was not convinced of her project, but with the passage of time the situation changed and the family accepted it, and even encouraged her a lot, and that was an incentive for her to continue and move forward.
Elham says, "With time, my parents became proud of me after requests came to me, and of course my mother was the first to believe in me and my abilities and helped me until I reached this stage."
She asserts that the lack of materials and tools that she uses in the Mauritanian market is one of the biggest difficulties she is facing now, as it takes a long time to obtain them through requests from abroad and sometimes disrupts her work, in addition to being very expensive, and all this, according to her, contributes to the high cost of the product and makes it in Sometimes not everyone has access.
Elham is trying to maintain its reputation and credibility with hard work and dedication, but the disappearance of some of the applicants - after their order is ready for delivery - is something that still baffles her, especially since it cannot be sold to someone else, because it was designed according to the taste and standards of the person who specified a specific name to be printed on The plaque or medal is a problem that she is trying to overcome through a new and strict plan. “I am trying to overcome this problem by stipulating that half the price of the product be paid as a prerequisite for accepting his request and starting the production process to avoid losses,” Elham says.
The colors that Ilham uses in making shapes and paintings (Al-Jazeera)
creative process
During the manufacturing and sculpting process, Ilham uses various tools, including the main material "resin", which is a material consisting of two parts, "resin" and "hardener", and is added in equal and weighted proportions. In order for the material to be ready to be placed in molds, which are used to produce various shapes on demand, such as medals, ornaments, and others.
Then the artist adds her own creative touches to polish and decorate the product by mixing it with the appropriate colors, shiny accessories and engraving expressive writings on it.
Because of the danger of "resin" to health, preventive measures are taken when starting work;
“I make sure that I wear gloves and masks and that I am in an open place,” she tells Al Jazeera Net.
Some of the molds that Elham uses to make artistic shapes (Al-Jazeera)
An ambition worthy of support
Maryam Al-Qadi, a blogger who supervises the largest and most famous women's group in Mauritania, considers her more inspiration than support from outside her family, she tells Al Jazeera Net, "Ilham is an ambitious girl and she managed with her efforts to develop remarkably in this field. I have been keeping pace with her work from the beginning."
And Maryam, who is happy with the presence of ambitious and successful girls, adds, "I have always been interested in and support youth projects. I met Ilham a year ago when one of my friends referred to me with a publication promoting their products and I liked it, and since then I have supported and promoted their products because they are the only ones in this field in Mauritania and they deserve support."
From the artifacts of Elham (Al Jazeera)
The plastic artist, Elham, who dreams of participating in international exhibitions, seeks to develop her project and focus more on drawing and producing fine art paintings, to diversify her products.
She says, "Since the beginning, I have always tried to innovate and innovate in the forms of pieces that I make and develop myself and my abilities. Therefore, I now participate in international groups for the manufacture of resin on WhatsApp and Facebook, and I follow international artists, and I deal with customers in a way that suits them. I only deliver their requests to them in elegant and attractive gift wrappers." .
In order to help Mauritanian women overcome the specter of emptiness and get rid of staying at home without production, the plastic artist Ilham Mohamed aspires to offer training courses for Mauritanian women in the resin industry in the future, urging them to pursue their passions and hobbies boldly, and they look forward to success with continuity. and patience.