Invalid Ladies...This Is For YOU

Let's go beat Foster & Milburn Co.'s ass. Invalid ladies??? Apparently invalidity was "common" among our "sex" during the early 1900s. Would you trust an add with that Humpty Dumpty dude to make you more valid? Wow, I now own this baby. I am always tempted to collect the historic proof of misogyny, racism and prejudice, but then I'm afraid I will flip out one day and burn it or something. I can hear the toturous sound of Beyonce's "Single Ladies" re-bestowed as "All My Invalid Ladies" playing agagin and again in my head. CLICK the picture so you can enlarge it and read/marvel at the description.

Her Immigrant Mother

New piece in the shoppe featuring genuine tintypes. Something quite "forever" about a tintype, no? Even though the tintype is quite older than the buckles surrounding it, I am a lover of all things Art Deco...had to work with this assemblage piece.

Forough Farookhzad

The Wind Will Take Us

In my small night, ah
the wind has a date with the leaves of the trees
in my small night there is agony of destruction
listen
do you hear the darkness blowing?
I look upon this bliss as a stranger
I am addicted to my despair.

listen do you hear the darkness blowing?
something is passing in the night
the moon is restless and red
and over this rooftop
where crumbling is a constant fear
clouds, like a procession of mourners
seem to be waiting for the moment of rain.
a moment
and then nothing
night shudders beyond this window
and the earth winds to a halt
beyond this window
something unknown is watching you and me.

O green from head to foot
place your hands like a burning memory
in my loving hands
give your lips to the caresses
of my loving lips
like the warm perception of being
the wind will take us
the wind will take us.

Forugh Farrokhzad
Translated by Ahmad Karimi Hakkak
The Persian Book Review VOLUME III, NO 12 Page 1337

Thirsty Pixels

Friend to the arts and amazing artist Emily Heochowicz is raising money to keep her work ALIVE...as a college student in NYC, I can imagine. Check out her blog here she has signed prints on sale and original sketches for $20.

inspire.

A vintage tarot card sits above my work desk these past four weeks and wants to dance with me. The Chariot...I am a lover of all things Egyptian, and this card is all things Egyptian+Circus+Symbols, and I love it. My aunt on my mother's side (one of my grandmother's eleven children) is a clairvoyant tarot reader, and I will say this, she was the one person that believed EVERYTHING that nobody else believed when I was a child. All the mysteries of my youth she accepted with a smile. My grandmother on my father's side was also able to do things, she read fortunes of everyone in the room from there small cups of Turkish coffee. In most Middle-Eastern cultures, when you're done with the post-dinner coffee, you flip it over and it reveals a depiction or text then read by the special lady in the house. Ancient, ancient practices that humanity has meshed into the contemporary state of their cultures..quite amazing how inspiration molds who we are.

A little reminder: Sunday Love in Williamsburg, that happens to carry THoF jewelry, was once a Fortune Teller's home and work place on the gritty Grand Avenue...stop on in NYCers and go through a warp, a mirror pool so to speak:
Sunday Love
624 Grand Street
BROOKLYN

Sleep

When I am with you, we stay up all night,
When you're not here, I can't get to sleep.
Praise God for these two insomnias!
And the difference between them.
-Rumi

I can't sleep these days, it's a combination of things I suppose. It's the haunting of unsettled feelings, inspiration and uncertainty...oh yeah, life!
It's not bad things, just bad that I can't peacefully rest while I have these ideas barraging me and working on my being. Creating is a gift to those that appreciate your work, you and the energy of the universe in general...it can also be a curse in that you become intoxicated with the feeling it gives you, and unable to desire other things with out completion of your creations.

Above is a poem from one of my all time favorite masters and one of my great inspirations, Mawlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī...but you can call him Rumi.

Fanciful Fobs and Circuses

Today I have two new creations in total contrast of one another. A minimalist, antique watch fob, hanging in all its gold filled Victorian glory, from a simple vintage brass chain, sprayed with faux pearls. Lovely no?
Next I have added to the shop a wild and eccentric mix of sordid sorts...a circus inspired charm fest, antique doll leg, antique secret society medal, chandelier prism, skeleton key, sterling clown, watch face!!
Very steampunk, very noir, very The Hand Of Fatima!

All Things Considered

All things considered...no, not Melissa Block and Michelle Norris, my life!
Wow, so alot is going on...so many political things in my other job, and in my first job as mother...some exciting new developments, Rami, at 10 and a half months walked!!! They want to make me work...hard.

So, spring is here, I have many a new additions to the line, and I have a secret stash that will be going up on my website by May 2009.

I've been focusing on a face lift of sorts, I am in the works for a new logo, a really exciting old piece of leather miniature from a special country came into my possession, and inspired me.

Also, the "mens" line, well what I meant to say was a line, marketed more towards men, but truly a, his, hers and them line. I am a feminist, so if I make something, it for a man, best believe it will also suit a woman...no pun intended. (suit...)

A new addition of head pieces will make there way to the website, fatimacouture.com.
Also, I have finally used those bones I've had. The line "Voodoo" is a take on the ever lasting drive for man/womankind to use other species for inspiration and mystical representation, along with the seedy diaspora of voodoo...sprinkle some mourning jewelery from the Victorian era, and voila!

I am sorry to all my vegans out there, but believe that these animals came from a professional taxidermist and were not killed for the bones, they were already dead, found or donated by an animal hospital.

I must say my vending over the holidays brought me in contact with some great new customers who offered great feedback. Many requested bones, and so many dudes were intrigued, which was a grand compliment.

Back to work!

Forgive Me!

I have been MIA!! I know, but you all have to understand, I have an entire secret life away from my jewelery inventing persona. LOL! Anyway, I have soooooooooooooo many new things coming to the shop, I also have been playing around with some things that are going to be a bit shocking...shhhh. More news when I actually bare fruit from the play. Hmmm. what else have we??
Good news and bad news: The oh so loved, "Bonded" human body casket tag bracelet will soon be discontinued. Unfortunately, well, you know what, I want to be diplomatic, let's just say I want designs that I choose (and actually can) to reproduce to be exclusive. So, good news, I am going to develop my mens line this month. I am so excited because at every show I do, I always have such enthusiastic fellows that would love stuff for themselves.

Happy belated New Year and Chinese New Year!!!
According to my girl Yin in Singapore, it's also the birthday of humanity today! Happy B-Day humanity!!!

I'm Not Morbid...Really.

So why all the casket tags and such...I don't know, but I love them...I like that they are strange and old. This bracelet is so a favorite of mine. While I was creating it I thought of that Hole song about "going to Portland"...I obtained two of these babies, and actually got to talk to a funeral home director in Oregon!
I wanted to be sure they were true vintage because the brass was so intact, so I called the home after coaxing my antique dealer Jeff into telling me where he got it! Ha! Sure enough, I was soon being quizzed by the director, he was asking me "what the heck" I wanted these for! I thought it was funny, so now I am telling you!

Just a little FYI, Portland Casket Co. does not exist anymore.