Trying to encapsulate both the “Ottoman spirit,” and a “twist of happiness,” as he puts it, Mouzannar takes a playful approach to his beads and you will find both ancient dinars and tassels in his masbaha, which come in series of either 33 or 66 beads (to better contemplate the 99 names of God). The collection also marks Mouzannar’s discovery of amber and its qualities. “There is something mystical about amber” he confides, “and yet it’s an organic stone, so there’s this natural and scientific aspect combined with its spirituality.”
“Over time,” he continues, adding that he gets most of his amber from a mine in southern Lebanon. “Its colour changes in layers, and as it becomes fossilized, pieces of leaves and even insects are captured within its surface, also affecting its texture. It really is a remarkable stone.”
Along with the amber, Mouzannar uses black onyx beads, turquoise, ivory, and coral in shades from pink to red. While the range as a whole is colourful, individual pieces are sober, monochromatic beads joined by tassels of gold or silver and set with “classic precious stones” like diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, or more unconventionally, tsavorites from Kenya.
Mouzannar’s gems have always evinced a vintage feel, despite their contemporary cuts and forms. “I avoid ostentation in my jewellery,” he says “because it has to do with the relationship to power.”
According to Mouzannar, his craft is rooted in an appreciation of nature, which it strives to imitate, in its full glory, for, as he puts it, “nature is full of revelation.”
Mouzannar’s scientific curiosity for gemstones led him to study at the National Institute of Gemology in Paris, after which he began working as purchasing manager for Robert Mouawad, a Beirut jeweller who is known for having one of the largest stone collections in the world.
First based in Saudi Arabia, he then moved to a ruby mine near the Thai-Cambodian border, before returning to Beirut. Although Mouzannar claims that travel to places as far-flung as Bangkok and Yemen is essential to enriching his work, ‘Mouz’ hearkens closer to home; in this case, meditations on traces of the Ottoman Empire, surely one reason why one of the places this Lebanese designer sells best is Istanbul.
WHO Selim Mouzannar
WHAT His Mouz collection of jewellery, a unique series of masabih or prayer beads
FACT While Muslims use masabih for zikr, including the 99 names of God, the beads represent to Christians the 33 years Christ was on Earth, multiplied by three for the trinity
WHY While his earth-toned ‘Terra’ collection and tributes to the arcades and balustrades of traditional houses in his ‘Beirut’ collection garnered great success, his ‘Mouz’ collection is expected to prove even more popular among the region’s bead-stringing elite.
