Dima Rashid is a talented Middle Eastern woman who uses gemstones to create the most beautiful jewelry pieces. Her love of gemstones came at an early age, and her father used to collect many rare gemstones. As a child, she would rather save her money to go to the antique shops to look for gems and built up a small collection.
She is Palestinian, being born in Kuwait and then raised in Riyadh. Dima is now living in Cairo with her husband and kids.
There is an interesting story of how her jewelry making started. A friend of Dina’s was ill and was advised to stay in bed. While she was on vacation in London, Dima thought it would be an excellent idea to buy her friend a kit so that she could learn to make bracelets and necklaces while resting in bed. She went to a bead store to purchase the kit, but just couldn’t leave and had to take a look at everything while she was there. Dima says, “I was mesmerized by the beauty of beads and threads.” The next day she returned to the bead shop and discovered that they offered jewelry making classes. She bought as many items as she could so that she could learn to make jewelry when she got back to Cairo. She learned how to make simple jewelry by watching DVD tutorials at home. Once she had learned the basics, she went on to make other pieces as well.
Dima started by making rosaries. She sought the help of one of Cairo’s finest goldsmiths so that she might learn some of his ‘special techniques.’ Dima also loves Bedouins and gypsies and learned to make some of their unique earrings and rings. When Dina started making jewelry using gemstones she found that it cost a lot of money, but her husband supported her. He is fond of art as well, so he was quite happy for Dima to pursue her jewelry design career.
Dima says, “I started making jewelry for myself and my daughters.” Soon, she received many orders and had to purchase more gemstones as she started selling her jewelry to others as well. After Dima had her first trunk show, she felt that she was not a business woman and did not want to continue selling her jewelry. She felt disappointed.
While on holiday in Paris, she was approached by a lady in a restaurant who admired her earrings. Dima told her that she had made them herself and the following morning she was paid a visit by Natasha Fraiser, editor – in – chief of Harper’s Bazaar and Marie Claire. Natasha wanted one of her jewelry pieces as a gift for John Galliano and asked her to create more pieces and assisted her in supplying jewelry to seven of London’s biggest stores.
Dima had more opportunities from that point onwards, and her pieces were used for shoots in British Vogue, and her jewelry was worn by celebrities, such as Naomi Campbell, Mona Zaki, who wore her earrings in ‘Assya’ series, Heidi Klum, Demi Moore, and Nancy Ajram.