Anila Ahmad

Anila Ahmad

Jewellery Designer & Holistic Therapist:

Anila is from Scotland and grew up in a place called Giffnock outside Glasgow. Living here inspired, fuelled her creative ideas of old fashioned nostalgia, & sentimentality. The area is hemmed with Edwardian Architectural houses; walled with beautiful old fashioned gardens, encircled with orchard trees. For this reason Anila called her brand ‘The Healing Garden’, whereby the idea of a beautiful garden visually creates instantly energies of healing from within. Even soothing thought processes leading one into a form of meditation. With this in mind the concept for ‘The Healing Garden’ also was inspired from her interest & studies of Holistic Therapies, Naturopathy and Organic Skin Care products: derived from an idea on using natural medicinal remedies from the garden & wilderness, since historical times. ‘The Healing Garden’ also conveys an idea of Spiritualism within a garden permitting vibrational energies of plants, flowers, trees & wild life (from singing of birds; sound of rain drops & wind breezing through old trees emit the energies from nature, which helps to heal the body mind & soul connection).

Education

Diploma in Holistic Therapies, Naturopathy and Stress Management 2008 – 2011 (on-going)

BA Honors Degree Jewellery Design from Central St Martins College of Art and Design 2004 -2007

HND Silversmithing, Gemology with Jewellery Manufacturing and Design 2001 – 2004

Jewellery Design & Holistic Therapies

Anila has always been interested in creativity: After working for 6 years in finance, she chose to change her career path. Anila then studied for 6 years in the subject of: Art and Design; Gemology, Silversmithing, Jewellery Manufacture & Design. While studying Anila did a summer internship with renowned Silversmith and Jewellery Designer: ‘Sara Jocelyn Burton’. Afterwards, Anila continued her studies in Holistic therapies and Stress Management; allowing her opportunities to do work placements as part of her coursework. “I felt very privileged & blessed to be able to use my therapy skills for patients in Scotland’s main hospital ward for Spinal injuries; also with cancer patients in palliative care. All opportunities have helped educate & inspire me to research more in healing therapies”.

Anila is a graduate Jewellery Designer, having trained at London’s prestigious & renowned Art School ‘Central St Martins College of Art & Design’. She is also a qualified & professional Holistic Therapist, working alongside the distinguished & reputable ‘Jan De Vries Healthcare team’, also with ‘Neal’s Yard Remedies’. From her home, she design processes her collections at her studio; then makes her jewellery collections at her workshop bench.

“For me Jewellery is an item of distinguishing character & reflections of personality: to wear something individual, handmade, designed through sophisticated thought processes – with attention to detail; including considerations towards sourced materials & technical processes; is an approach to articulate & express my passionate interests for creativity. I love to design & make jewellery styles that are individually unique; & also express the true essence of my inner self.”

My Work depicts narratives of spiritual and holistic concepts; reflected within my educational research and personal interests. I have adapted this method to unravel ideas intended for storytelling, within my jewellery collections conveying my thought processes aimed at creative disciplines”.

‘The Healing Garden’ inspiration ~ My garden in Giffnock.

“…..This Garden was my Grandfather’s. I have fond memories, and a deep connection within nature from being here as a child. The energies are truly healing and nourishing for the soul. The land is very fertile, as the area was once an orchard. We still have the original Orchard trees in our Garden; and the gardens around the area . My grandparents grew a lot of produce here, and we still do now. For this reason I trained in knowledge of Non medical and natural nutrition, because my family generations come from farming villages in Pakistan (and still do), they know plenty about healing, the old fashioned and traditional way, to live an Organic & wholesome lifestyle. My interest and heritage influenced me, particularly learning about my Great Grandmother, who grew up in the farming villages in Pakistan, They grew amazing and abundant produce; with seasonal supplies of exotic herbs, spices & orchards of citrus, pomegranate, mango & guava; pretty crops of cotton fields, along with sugar cane, tea leaves, many types of seasonal fruits & vegetables, they reared domestic animals and lived very primitive lifestyles…..

I’m inspired and deeply ingrained by the influence of my Great Grandmother Jena…..She was a natural spiritual healer with mediumistic abilities. Through the generations, with her abilities and sacred values, she has laced us with her influences and lifestyle; saturated and passed down generations of knowledge and understanding about the key principles of spiritual healing, natural methods within herbalism-similar to Ayurveda, this was practised alot, as the country once was India. These traditions have always been an essence of our up bringing, I feel blessed and deeply enriched to have had learned something like this from my grandparents era….

….As a result, with regular development, I have trained and progressed my potential & natural abilities within mediumistic & clairvoyance skills, in order to gain a better understanding of what comes naturally within my own soul’s essence…I am deeply blessed to have been mentored and trained with a brilliant International Spiritualist Medium & Minister Irene McGilvray DSNU….she had taught and influenced me greatly…… “