Siwan culture boasts a variety of traditional arts and crafts, such as silver jewelry, colorful woven baskets and embroidered and beaded garments and accessories. Siwa has long been celebrated for the exquisitely embroidered garments and stunning silver jewelry.  Widely prized around the world for its beauty and craftsmanship, many of these adornments have traditionally served important functions as ritual icons, symbols of marital status, keepers of fertility and conveyers of tradition. 

Embroidery
Elderly Siwan women, well skilled in the art of Siwan embroidery, typically teach their daughters and granddaughters how to embroider. Each Siwan girl is expected to produce her own wedding trousseau, in part as an exhibition of her skill in the traditional crafts. The most dazzling garments are those worn by Siwan women during wedding festivities.  Of these, the white cotton asherah namilal worn on the third day, and the black silk asherah nazitaf worn on the seventh day, are especially striking.  Each is intricately embroidered with small red, orange and black designs that radiate from a central disc placed over the chest, and embellished with mother-of-pearl buttons and amulets. 

Jewelry
Siwan jewelry is equally striking. Delicate yet robust, Siwan necklaces, headdresses, bracelets and rings are fashioned from silver and embroidered leather and accented with coral, mother-of-pearl, amber, shells and other materials.  Incorporating Amazigh designs, the silverwork and craftsmanship is of such high quality it is sought after by collectors around the world.  One such design is an exotic fertility necklace worn only by unwed Siwan girls. The adrim, a large silver disc, slips over the aghrow, a thick silver coil in the shape of a sun disc, to hang just above a woman’s breasts, forming a provocative design of exceptional beauty.  Commonly, the aghrow is plain while the adrim is finely decorated with geometric and natural patterns that often feature fish, a symbol of fertility.  On the night before her wedding, a Siwan bride-to-be passes the aghrow to the next eligible female of her family, transmitting a piece of family history and Siwan culture.

Please view our gallery for Siwa Creation products.

Arts and Crafts
Siwan culture boasts a variety of traditional arts and crafts, such as silver jewelry, colorful woven baskets and embroidered and beaded garments and accessories. 

Al Beit Al Siwi (The Siwan House)
Located in the center of town, Al Beit Al Siwi is a small museum in Siwa.  Organized by the local community to share the Siwan culture, this museum was built as a traditional style house using the natural building material, kershef. The museum displays cooking utensils, richly ornamented garments, jewelry, musical instruments, baskets and Siwan pottery.