ILLUME Magazine:
Egypt College Senior Sells Personalized Crafts, Spreads Love
Posted in: Feature
Aya Khalil | Jul 19, 2010 | 2:48 PM
"Mona Mohamed poses with one of many clay figures she personalizes and sells.
I love seeing customers’ reaction when they see the box … It makes me so happy."
Mona Mohamed is spreading the love in Cairo, Egypt -- one clay figure at a time.
“It started as a hobby. I used to make cute little things for my friends for their birthdays and then it increased,” 20-year-old Mohamed said. “I gained more experience as time went by.”
Mohamed is a senior at Ain Shams University and her major is English. However, she had always wanted to become an artist and attend art school.
Her friends then continued to request personalized clay figures, earrings, bracelets, and picture frames. It became overwhelming.
“My friends requested a lot of things, even if there was no occasion,” she said. “But I continued regularly making things until someone told me “you waste time on requests and you don’t really have to do it with no special occasions.” People started to encourage me to make it more of a business than a hobby.”
Her fiancé, Tamer Azab, convinced her people would buy her crafts, although she doubted herself.
“I didn’t think anyone would pay me for what I was doing. But [Azab] encouraged me, and then I made a Facebook group.”
Mohamed started a Facebook group in 2008 and posted a plethora amount of her crafts. Her page (she later made a fan page instead of a group), Turn Your Photo Into A Clay Statue ★ BOOMONA handcrafts & Accessories has 1,282 fans as of July 17, 2010.
She faced a couple of obstacles: her parents weren’t supportive, she wasn’t confident enough of her work and she didn’t have much experience with business. She said most of her friends have been supportive of her business, especially her best friend who goes with her on clay-finding expeditions in remote, touristy areas in Cairo.
Mohamed gained experience little by little. Azab helped her with public relations and made a website and business cards for her. She researched materials online, and read about different types of clays to use for her most popular item: clay figures.
“Nobody else does clay figures similar to this in Egypt,” she said. She said it’s a fairly new idea in Egypt, and people don’t value handmade clay figures there as they do in the America.
Mohamed personalizes and molds clay figures depicting people. She focuses on the details of the person’s face, whether it is a man with a beard, a woman donning a hijab, or a little girl with freckles and piggy tales. She then continues to mold the rest of the body and adds a setting to the figure(s).
For example, for Mother’s Day, she got several requests. For one order, she molded a family sitting at a park with their two dogs. Each family member was depicted as a clay figure.
Clay figures start at 150 L.E. (approximately $27) and increase according to how many clay figures the customers want, the settings, and details. Usually customers will send Mohamed a photo and tell her to make it 3-D through clay figures. Other times the customers will send her a photo of friends or a couple, and tell her to make something fun.
Mohamed usually gets one or two requests per week. Clay figures for engagement parties, Valentine’s Day, and birthdays are popular. She also makes wedding cake toppers that look like the bride and groom.
There are many different types of clays, Mohamed said, and finding certain types of clay in Cairo is not simple and goes out of stock quickly.
She uses polymer clay for earrings and other accessories, because although it dries fairly fast and already come colored but expensive and rare. She uses ceramic clay the most because easily accessible, popular, but takes up to three days to dry by air.
She wishes her parents were more supportive of her work, but she thinks they don’t understand how much she enjoys her work. Her favorite part of her work is when she sees the customer’s reaction.
“They [parents] don’t see the reaction that I get from people. They just see me at home and paying too much attention and spend too much time on it. But they don’t see how happy I get when customers receive their orders,” she said. “I love seeing customers’ reaction when they see the box … It makes me so happy. That’s the biggest reward-- seeing their reactions.”
She wants to open an actual store for BOOMONA in the next couple of years, but wants to gain more experience and learn more about the business industry.
The 20-year-old advised anyone who loves art, or wants to follow his or her dream, especially in Egypt where unemployment is a grave issue and public education continues to deteriorate, to keep going and not give up. Even if he or she has no support in the beginning.
“Anything in life, when you start it, a lot of people will try to stop you and not encourage you and will stand in your way. It’s how bad you really want that. Do you really want to do that? Are you really good at this? Do you really care what people are going to say? If you don’t, then go for it and prove [that] yourself and [prove] the others wrong,” she said. “If you have the talent for it, keep going and when you keep doing it, you will get more experience.”
Mohamed reminds her customers that her business is about spreading the love through personalized accessories and clay figures.
“It means a lot because it’s made especially for them, so it’s all about the love after all, so spread the love guys.”
For more information on Mohamed’s arts and crafts, check out www.Boomona.com
http://www.illumemag.com/zine/articleDetail.php?Egypt-College-Senior-Sells-Personalized-Crafts-Spreads-Love-13134
