Bedouin trinkets at Atef Wassef

Without too much trouble, I managed to get to the silversmith's store - Atef Wassef. Mona, the owner and pharmacist of Nefertari Cosmetics had told me about this store. Her jewelry is so gorgeous that I am going to try to copy the coral and silver necklace she was wearing when I met her. Atef Wassef is located downtown at 54, Kaleq Sarwat Street perpendicular to the Corniche and near the Nasser Metro stop. The store is colorfully painted on its exterior, pink, blue and white in arabesques. The store is huge, two life sized bronze horses in the front part of the store.

Mona, a new Egyptian friend I met in the White Desert and owner/entrepeneur of Neferari Cosmetics told me about Atef Wassef, whose store is downtown. He had two big baskets full of all kinds of Bedouin belts, necklaces, bits and pieces. As I and two assistants pawed through the piles, my hands turned black with tarnish. Bedouin pieces are usually 60% silver (which makes them cheaper per gram to buy around 3.5 LE). Right now I am wearing a wonderful ring with an intaglio horse carved carnelian stone with tiny turquoise stones on the sides. It could be from Turkestan (Afghanistan). For a heavy sack of things, it came to 1765 LE around $300. I have enough to make about 10-12 necklaces as I concentrated on buying pendants though I did purchase some earrings too. They are generally called zar pendants - meant to protect the wearer and attached not to the earlobe, but to a Bedouin woman, attached to her head scarf near her ears.