ALKHOBAR: Saudi Arabia’s traditional crafts, once displayed as tokens of nostalgia in souqs and heritage festivals, are finding fresh life in the hands of a new generation.

Young artists are experimenting with copper, silver, brass, palm fronds, clay and wool, preserving techniques passed down through generations and reshaping them into contemporary works.

In Madinah, collector Somayya Al-Shareef describes her relationship with traditional silver pieces as a kind of dialogue across time.

“For me, antique silver pieces are like silent storytellers. I buy them not only for their beauty but for the lives they touched before reaching me,” she said.

What excites her most is seeing young artists melt these heirlooms into jewelry that feels both ancient and modern.

“Sometimes I feel old items get locked away as lifeless antiques,” she added. “But when artists reshape them, it feels like they’re given a second life instead of ending up forgotten in a box.”

On the Red Sea coast in Jeddah, Rayan Al-Amoudi traces his love for copper back to childhood memories.

“I grew up watching my grandfather repair copper pots in the old souq,” he recalled.

Today, he sees his creative peers cutting and reshaping copper into wall art or light fixtures. “It’s a way of keeping our family traditions alive.”

For him, the movement also carries international weight. “In Jeddah, small workshops are run by young people experimenting with copper. Some pieces are now showcased abroad, which makes me feel our heritage can become a global brand.”

Further east in Dhahran, designer Dana Al-Ansari sees experimentation as the defining mark of her generation. “What I love is how experimental it’s become. Some of my friends mix traditional brass patterns with acrylic or resin to make sculptures. It’s bold, unexpected, but still rooted in Saudi identity.

“Even when we add modern materials like resin or acrylic, the designs stay authentically Saudi. The goal isn’t to copy Western art — it’s to give our heritage a new voice.”

In Jeddah, Mishal Al-Amri has been reshaping traditional metalwork. Where most people see scrap destined for landfill, Al-Amri sees raw material for art.

Over two decades, he has collected rusted bolts, pipes and discarded iron, welding them into large-scale sculptures.

As Arab News reported in July, Al-Amri said: “The artist has an eye that sees what others cannot, an eye that captures the beauty in the heart of the damaged and neglected, and restores it to life and meaning.”

His exhibition, “The Neglected,” invited audiences to see beauty in what was once abandoned. Beyond aesthetics, his work carried a message of sustainability: Recycling harmful waste into artistic forms that inspire environmental consciousness.

“My ultimate goal is to give scrap metal a new life,” Al-Amri told Arab News. “Art should protect the earth as much as it inspires the soul.”

At Riyadh’s Naila Art Gallery earlier this year, artist Fatimah Al-Nemer presented “Memory of Clay,” an exhibition that reinterpreted ancestral crafts as conceptual art.

Using palm fibers, clay and wool, she created installations that blurred the line between utility and expression.

As Arab News reported in May, Al-Nemer said: “This is not merely an aesthetic celebration. It’s a rewriting of our communal identity. Our heritage is rich.”

Her collaboration with Saudi craftswomen ensured generational knowledge was embedded in the work. For her, clay is a mirror of memory, “cracking to reveal hidden layers of nostalgia and wisdom,” she told Arab News at the time.

Participation in international art fairs has shown Saudi crafts in a new light. Al-Nemer’s clay installations resonate globally as meditations on memory and identity, while Al-Amri’s upcycled sculptures echo environmental discourses from Tokyo to Paris.

As Al-Nemer told Arab News: “Craft is no longer confined to the past — it is a living contemporary practice with global relevance.”