The folk heritage and the origination of an Egyptian national identity in jewelry design

The Egyptian identity is an accumulation of multilayer of civilizations  starting from the ancient Egyptian to the Greco-Roman followed by the Coptic then the Islamic periods. Each era added one of its features hat contributed to making this unique Egyptian distinctiveness. Despite huge attempts that targeted the Egyptian identity attempting to sway its  structure, it stayed unshaken resisting each of these attempts.
The folkloric heritage is an essential element in building  a nations’ culture and the most expressive way of a national identity. It is certainly a distinguished inherited civilization. Therefore the present study is an attempt to study ways of utilizing those patrimony heritage  that represent the culture of the Egyptian society in formulating  some of the ideas that carries Egyptian features based on inspiring the folk-art and its symbols. Jewelry has been chosen for its versatility and  manageable capable of comprehending all those folk arts and crafts inheritance.
Folk art is  mixture of applied arts that shows in our daily life artifacts and it is also a marketing constituent. The Egyptian society is unique in some of its daily used products. These can only seen in Egyptian houses. Those products feature  three element that can when merged together can yield competitive products he expresses the Egyptian identity.
The problem of the current study can be summarized in three queries to what extent the folk heritage can be utilized in supporting the case of originating a national identity? Can the misuse of the folk heritage be limited through investigating its symbols and elements meticulously? Can the jewelry field be a possible channels of keeping our folk heritage?
The objective of the current study has been to originate a national identity in product design utilizing our folk heritage that forma a treasure of inspiration sources especially in Jewelry design. The study also aims at establishing a mechanism or the documentation of  heritage treasure.
The study is based on proofing two hypothesis; the folk heritage contributes heavily to the origination of an Egyptian national identity, and the integration of jewelry design and heritage inheritance can yield an internationally competitive products.
The study has used both the analytical descriptive and survey methodology. In addition  a number of new designs have been presented to mark the results of the study. And to provide evidence on the realization of the paper hypothesis.
Results of the study emphasized that work in the folk heritage field necessities the continuation and sustainability and needs to be believed in from the people working in the field. The national identity origination requires  redundant efforts and research work in all fields of design generally and the jewelry design specifically. Results of the current study include; the inherited folk elements and symbols were and still is a rich source of inspiration. Those inherited elements carry semiotics and semantics and meanings that the Egyptian people have been associated to and help products to withstand foreign designs. Also it was confirmed that the reliance on heritage  elements can positively contribute  on tourism in Egypt. The heritage elements ceate a common communication language deepening and increasing our national identity. Also it was reached that the folk heritage jewelry is a source of creative inspirations with their unique distinctive structure.