Friday, 5 June 2009

Solid gold links and family bonds

Tawfique Abdullah weaves between workstations at the Damas Jewellers workshop floor in Dubai, and tilts his tall frame over a goldsmith’s shoulder to offer a quiet word of advice.

Unlike many at the helm of a multimillion-dirham public company, Mr Abdullah, 52, can still work the factory floor.

The goldsmith-turned-chairman was just seven years old when he began visiting his father’s workshop, then in Dubai’s Gold Souk, after school. Initially, he toyed around with scrap metal. When he was trusted with real gold, he created pendants. One, in the shape of a passage from the Quran was his first finished jewellery piece. “I was this little child intrigued with these machines,” he says. “Basically, it was like going to art school or art class.”

No comments:

Post a Comment