Salima first took courses in the department of goldsmithing and metalwork at the Royal Academy, Antwerp, and it was there that she discovered her creative alphabet. As with developing any language, she established a strong foundation of technical skills and engineering acumen, gaining fluency and cadence in her creative output. Focusing on adornment and self-expression through wearable art, she pushed past the confines of convention to explore the sacred symbolism of turning an abstract idea into a physical form that would then return to the body.

Her earlier work was steeped in a sanctity for jewelry’s ability to weave narratives and hold emotions. Today, while her collections have evolved, the scale, diversity of aesthetics and materials in her work has expanded, at the core of every design is her unshakable devotion to the art form.

Lovingly shepherding each piece through every step of the design and fabrication process, she marvels at gold’s malleability, she takes joy in the ancient tools that help her express her ideas in tangible objects, she revels in the nuances of the gemstones she hand-selects, and she is awed knowing the diamond she holds in her hands dates back millions of years.

With her deft abilities, gold and gemstones become fabric, draping sensually with the curves and movements of its wearer. Working without sketching, her approach to the design process is tactile. Alone at her bench in an atelier connected to her family home, she experiments with ideas, a playful curiosity fueling her drive to create. The result of her physical prowess and dedication coupled with her esteem for jewelry as a powerful object of meaning and symbolism are sophisticated designs that are profound in their elegantly expressed complexity, quietly disrupting expectations.

The peace and calm she enjoys in the sanctuary of her workshop is juxtaposed with her bricks and mortar store, where Salima gets to witness a joy of discovery in others, the change that happens, the way their faces that light up, when they connect with their piece, a piece that speaks to the deepest part of their soul. “It’s emotional when people find a piece that translates what they want to say,” Salima explains. “First they’re talking to me, and then they put a piece on and they look in the mirror and they see a totally different person; they are no longer talking to me but to themselves.”