Belated Nowrooz Mobarak!

It's 1389, I want to wish everyone a happy, beautiful New Year full of freshness. This year I got a really great photo of the family babies in the grass in my Baba's backyard. The small joys of life are not so small, they are just as recognizable and grand as they are.

On another note we're moving! Two blocks away...LOL. I won't be listing or creating for at least two weeks, try moving with two kids and hardly any help! It's hard.
So the first show of my season will be one of my favorite places EVER, The Brooklyn Lyceum. Be there the very first weekend of May, it'll be tons of fun.
http://www.bkcraftcentral.com/
Check out the classes that are available those days, Deb Klein has made them insanely affordable, I'm talking $5 to $10...

Sunday Love- 624 Grand st. Brooklyn, NY, 11121

We had a DOPE time @ the grand opening of Sunday Love. I was excited I baked a damn carrot cake and made my famous tabouli pizza in like four different hummus flavors!! lol.

Anyway if you're in Brooklyn, you need to get over to Sunday Love and check out this haven of nostalgia and awesomeness. The Hand of Fatima jewelry is one of the artisan goods you will find there! Greer and Scott rehabilitate furniture and decoupage pieces into amazing home editions! Ned Martin, the third owner is a painter extraordinaire, and his work is on display @ the shop. Sunday Love is like a parallel universe, it will stand out to you, my favorite part of its history is that it was the long time tarot card reader's place...oh, how perfect that THoF is there!

I have some of my apocrathy line in there, and there is just love all around, no love like Sunday Love! So, go eat some banging Thai food accross the street and walk over to Sunday Love and get lost in time.
xo
P.S.- I bought that camera on the right, you'll see it in some ne product photos!

Vibe-ing

i'm sitting here trying to work like a sweatshop kid for this BUST Magazine show...and I just cannot focus!!! AaaaaaaaaaaHHHHHHHHH! anyway i am realizing that i am a huge Santogold fan. i love her, so i am listening to her during this process of unfocused behaviors....
enjoy

The Hand of Fatima Design Loves Courtney Love

Thank you again Miss Love for supporting my work and the handmade movement.
The Hand of Fatima Design has been featured on the icon of style's Hot List.
Check it HERE.

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.

Trunk Show and The Handmade Cavalcade

Hey! So I am kicking off the season of shows with an intimate trunk show with Chez Marie. The show was by invitation only (as requested by the coordinator and owner of the space). It will be all women and a variety of ages, from early twenties to fifties. I will have pics for you guys because I have started a new display format...I picked up some awesome vintage suitcases and my Mom is helping me to distress some newer wooden jewelery caddies. Fun stuff.
On another note, the first trade show I will be doing is The NewNew's
Handmade Cavalcade in Tribeca on Dec.6th...check out this fabulous graphic flyer designed by Jamie Boyle Ibrahim of bluestitchbooks.

Something New

I took some pics yesterday, some newbies that will be added to the Etsy shop this weekend...okay by Monday night. I have two kids, gimme some slack!!

Courtney Love Love

Thanks Miss Love-Cobain for the love and blogging about me! I told her that calling me "genius" means I can prove to my family I am somebody-hahahhaa!!!! Miss love certainly picked some of my favorites, and I hope she enjoys them, and I hope even more so she continues being inspired on for her new album dropping in January. Visit her at courtneylove.com or her Myspace.
Big shout out to the other two Etsy sellers she gives C-Love love to!!!

Maine Trip Part II

Mary and Nabil took us to "downtown" Portland, Maine where Nabil had to make some deals on the docks for the lobster he would later bestow upon us. Sadly, I would partake in their demise...as a first time lobster killer, I was a bit sad and guilt ridden after hearing tales that you can sometimes hear the lobsters "scream" when thrown in a pot....
Anyway, forgive me if you can, Arian told me to remember that they are "sea roaches" and that will help me get over it...it did. I must say Portland is exactly what I thought New England would be, it's soooo cute and a drunkerd/college kid/beer lovers' dreamland chock full of BEER, breweries, bars and more places to buy beer. I don't drink, neither do Nabil and Mary, but Arian enjoys an occasional swig. "When in Maine, do as Mainers do." and so he got a taste of some Geary's ale along with his "lobstah", and I think it was safe to say he was getting his Maine on.
Portland is full of quaint, lovely shops and boutiques without the bougieness. One shop I just fell in love with, they had everything from shoes to babywear, but not saturated with any one thing...I don't recall the name, but I will always remember it.We snapped some pics on the docs in front of the "Bait Shack" and also near a park in the center of the shoppes, was a time piece store! Wait until you see the sign they have. I am a total steampunk nut, and this thing is so cool, I wanted to grab it and put in my living room. Another thing that was so interesting during the whole experience was that the mood was set by fog and overcast, and in the dampness, surrounded by the brew and boats, I imagined the days when this land was just cultivating, revolting and booming with industry...Look at how far we have come. I am a first generation born American, Nabil has arrived roughly 2 years ago from Rahbat, Arian second generation American on one side and descended from slaves on the other, Mary tracing her roots to this land for so many generations, and we were all their on those New England docks like the Americans we all are...I was moved, with the election results spinning in my head and my own visions of witches and hoop skirts.


Please do NOT forget to visit MothDesigns

Fall...

I love fall.
Fall brings many good memories to my being. A good New York fall that is brisk and crispy always tingles the senses in an awakening way. Fall is when my husband and I reached a very deep point in love before we were married, fall was when we first found out we would be parents, it was then the season that I learned the logistics of being a mother, and in general, I have so much childhood nostalgia of fall. I happen to ADORE Halloween, and I am dying to go to Mexico for Dia De Los Muertos. This fall I will be trying to deal with the crazy weather global warming has introduced to my hometown...to my mother earth as well, but I will really be in love with those brisk and crispy days because they are a treasure for certain!
I have so many new designs that I need to upload into the Etsy shop the problem is, now that the sun disappears so early I never make it in time to snap pictures. I know that it's possible to make a light box, but I really love the quality of natural light in my photos. I am no stellar photographer to begin with, so I need all the enhancement I can get.
I did a ridiculously exciting craft shoe in Washington DC called Crafty Bastards on September 28...it was just fabulous. The bad thing is...I designed a TON of new material and did not photograph it and now all the one of a kinds are out in the world with their rightful owners, but all I have is a memory...To any of the wonderful people I met in DC, if you have a picture of you in you The Hand Of Fatima wares, please feel free to send them this way!
xo

Here is a design of a newbie in the shop...and a little picture of Amir playing in the leaves..I hope he too has good memories of this season when he's older.

Hello Friend.

Hello Friend...the great words of Little Bill (My older son's favorite show on Noggin...well top 5).
Today is the first day of my new blogging life. It has been very hard to blog...well do anything these days. I am happy to be busy, but between the kids, community work, trade shows and building an independent website...it's hectic here. I think I have decided that in this blog we will talk about not just my indie jewelery endeavors, but all indie artists, art, music, life, fashion, style, and well, whatever you want to! I am happy to let you into my life a bit and my eyes are wide open to look into yours.
Peace,
Mariam

There's a nifty brothel token necklace for you to wonder about from my Fall collection.
xoxox