A voyage, and a return home.

Óriakụ

Igbo — the enjoyment and stewardship of wealth.

How it all started

Every story has a journey. Mine begins in Paris.

I was born and raised in the City of Lights by a single African mother who worked tirelessly as a seamstress. Our home overflowed with fabrics, patterns and fashion magazines. I grew up watching her draw, cut and sew through long nights — making garments for great French designers while remaining unseen.

I spent hours perfecting my sketches and entering contests with my twin brother. But my mother had other dreams for me: stability, and the education she never had. So I chose that.

The voyage

I earned a Master’s in Communications for the Creative Industries, then an MBA. Stability became the goal. Then an email invited me to a tech training programme — and led me to Norway, a country that would change everything.

The landscapes, the light, the silence felt magical to someone raised among concrete. I stayed. Here I learned what Scandinavian design truly means: not a trend but a philosophy — simplicity, balance and function woven into everything.

After ten years in tech, leading international projects and teams, burnout made me stop. For the first time, I had nothing to manage but myself. That pause became the turning point.

The return home

From that silence, Oriaku was born — first as Glowing Jewels, now under the name that says what we make.

It is a return to my creative roots. From my mother’s sewing machine to corporate boardrooms, from the streets of Paris to the fjords of Norway, every step prepared me to build a house that joins both worlds.

The collaboration

Abdou is an artist jeweller in Dakar, born into a family of craftsmen. He answered my call, and we began making our first pieces together straight away.

Today every collection is designed in Oslo and made by hand in his atelier, in small batches.

The hands behind every piece