Her love for the heritage of her country prompted her to embody it in its finest details by designing figures that speak of Egyptian customs and traditions. She also embodied the warmth of homes in popular neighborhoods and was interested in expressing the customs of Egyptians during the month of Ramadan and holidays. She is Mona Hassan Hanafi, a graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts, who took miniature art as a way to express the beauty she sees around her.

Mona Hassan spoke to “The Seventh Day” about her tendency to teach the art of miniatures, where she said: “I turned to the art of miniatures because through it I can express any historical period or place and design in its smallest details, and I also believe that we can use art to express our heritage And our culture, that’s why I learned the art of miniatures through online courses, and I was able to develop myself after a while.”

Another design by Mona

Pharaonic design for Mona

And about her design of Egyptian homes and the ways Egyptians celebrate religious occasions in popular neighborhoods, she said: “I love to draw my ideas from reality, and it always draws my attention to the details of Western decoration, but with time I realized that Egyptian art and our civilization are a million times better and rich in distinctive details, so I drew my ideas from them in designing The miniatures expressed the celebration of popular neighborhoods on religious occasions and the decoration of Egyptian homes, such as making kahk in homes and baking kahk in the oven, and manifestations of celebration in the street, such as children playing with swings and balloons, and family picnics in gardens. The figures were provided with lighting to express more of reality.

Mona’s design

Mona designs

Another model of an Egyptian house

She continued: “I was inspired by my ideas in designing the figures from the Egyptian civilization and the guard of the temple, and I wanted them to be distinctive. I designed an elegant staircase, and I designed a wooden box inside which the old Egyptian houses were designed, and the walls were painted with the Kaaba and expressions of congratulations for the pilgrims coming from Hajj. I decorated the box from the outside with Egyptian motifs, and every part I designed manually from A sofa, a carpet and a group of people to be closer to reality.

A model of a child watching the joy of Eid

Model of Egyptian houses

And about the difficulties she faced while designing the box, she said: “Each design has its own difficulty, and I can repeat it once, twice, or three times, until I reach the design I want, and the tools I use are carpentry tools such as saws, wood, and other materials that help me reach the design I want.”

Figure designed by Mona

anthropomorphic

Miniature about the celebration of the holiday

Regarding the customers’ requests, she said: “Most of the requests are about designing a place that has a memory for the customer and in which customers would like a miniature design for a movie poster or a scene from it, or musical instruments.”

Mona with her design

Mona ended by expressing the wish she dreams of achieving in the future, as she said: “I will, in the future, implement more designs about our heritage in order to know the world and the coming generations on our culture and customs.”