Hi, I'm Florinda
Hi, I'm glad you're reading me!
My name is Florinda and I make handmade custom jewelry that is a little journey to wear !
My passion for contemporary jewelery was born occasionally during a trip to South Africa, to Cape Town with my Finnish friend Terhi, already passionate about jewellery. Thanks to Terhi I discover that I have a hidden ability that has not yet been explored (and who knows how many we have and are not aware of!).
So I started my journey as a hobby, but it soon became my greatest interest.
Until 2005 I had never seen or even imagined what my future would be in this new field because I came from a world very far from it, perhaps totally opposite.
I graduated in Oriental Languages and Civilizations with honors in 1998, at the Oriental University of Naples, and afterwards, while all my friends went to London to continue their studies, I decided to leave for Tanzania , where I did a Master's degree . in Radio and Television Journalism at TSJ in Dar es Salaam.
During my adolescence I had in fact worked for a radio station and I had always liked radio and television communication and am still passionate about it.
So, I was saying, I'm moving to Dar es Salaam. During my master's degree, I wrote reports for Dar es Salaam Television's news programs. I had a blast . I interviewed many important people, including the then President.
It is in Tanzania that my friends call me Maua, the Swahili name that comes closest to Florinda!
Hence Maua Design .
In 2001 I returned to Sicily and in Palermo I work for the regional TG3 . I had a lot of fun there too! Unfortunately I can't pass the last journalism exam at the school in Perugia and after a few months of hesitation I decide to accept a job offer with an NGO that sends me to Albania . I also spent some wonderful months in Tirana.
While I was in Tirana, I received a proposal from the United Nations which I accepted and so I left for Uganda . I worked in Kampala for 6 years in Development Cooperation . But since I don't know how to sit still, in my free time I decided to study Gemology at the Gemological Institute of America, just like that... because I liked it .
So I became a gemologist, a gemstone professional.
From there it all begins. I decide that this will be the path I will take, it cannot be said without difficulty . Of course I came from Development Cooperation which wasn't really an artistic sector at all!
I begin my journey among jewels, gems and precious stones . I study goldsmithing in Argentina , in Mendoza, where I lived for 4 years and in the meantime I graduated in diamonds in Chicago . In Florence I take the Diploma on pearls.
In Rome I did other goldsmithing courses and I graduated in colored stones and then in general in Gemology at the GIA in London .
I leave for Egypt in 2015. In Cairo, I learned other jewelry techniques at the famous Azza Fahmi school. In my four years in beautiful Cairo, I organized parades and events and needless to say I had a lot of fun here too.
In 2020 I'm leaving for Malaysia, a bad year to discover a new country, but one that I've come to love over time . My jewels were displayed in one of the most beautiful shopping centers in the city. My world was closed on the eighteenth floor of a skyscraper in the center of the beautiful city of Kuala Lumpur where I wrote this page and many of my creations were born afterwards. Also in Kuala Lumpur I organized events in collaboration with other artists.
Now I'm back in Italy, in Forlì. Come visit me in my living room!
This is why every Maua Design jewel is a small journey to wear, it is the expression of me and my experiences.
#sendingwithmauadesign
Welcome and welcome to my crazy world
