ZAKIYYAH

Zakiyyah is a hand-beading artist based in Paris whose work is a study in patience, precision, and the quiet power of slow things. Using glass beads, pearls, stones, and traditional embroidery techniques – including Lunéville and Aari embroidery – she creates pieces entirely by hand, one bead at a time. Her goal is to preserve traditional handwork in a contemporary way, and everything she makes carries that intention.

Nature is her deepest source of inspiration, especially the ocean – vast, powerful, and unapologetic. That energy runs through her designs alongside personal memories and travels, making each piece feel like it holds a small world inside it.

Her workspace is filled with trays of beads, fabrics, pearls, sketches, and pieces in various stages of becoming. She can't create without a good night's sleep and her mom hyping her up.

You can connect with Zakiyyah and her work through her IG handle @lamoureuseparis or at lamoureuseparis.fr.

Zakiyyah never rushes into the work. Every morning begins with a slow moment – stretching, a little yoga, movement for a body that will spend the next several hours bent over an embroidery frame. Then she organizes her materials for the day, and takes a few quiet minutes simply looking at colors and textures before the first stitch is made. It's an act of easing in, not charging forward.

Her work demands deep focus and an almost meditative patience, and she feels immediately when the balance is off. A broken thread. A needle that keeps catching. A restlessness that wasn't there before.

"Because my work is so detailed and repetitive, I really rely on rhythm and concentration while creating. Having a calm and organized space helps me stay focused, both creatively and physically."

Grounding, for Zakiyyah, lives in the small and quiet: organizing materials, sketching, taking in sunlight, having a good meal, focusing on one thing fully. Without that space, she says, we risk losing the thread back to ourselves – and in her work, every thread counts.