Wife, mother, activist.

A member of the Pashtun tribe of Afghanistan.

The Afghani Queen from 1919 to 1929, she shocked tribal leaders by taking off her veil and publicly announcing her personhood.  

The only wife of her beloved King, she accompanied him visiting troops in the war of independence against the British. She participated in hunting parties on horseback, an act unheard of by women in Afghanistan at the time.

Born in 1899 in Syria and the child of intellectuals, she campaigned for the education of girls, and managed to send several abroad to university.

By 1929, to stop the possibility of civil war, the King abdicated his throne.  Queen Soraya Tarzi spent the rest of her life in exile in Italy until her death in 1968.

The PASHTUN collection is made in her honor. She held her head high, she faced adversity with strength. She felt beautiful.

To the Maasai of Kenya, long beaded earrings tell a woman’s story without her uttering a word.  Blue beads symbolize God (for He inhabits the sky) and green the earth after a rainfall.  Buttons on her earrings say she is mother to a circumcised son.  The earrings themselves proclaim that she is a wife.

Our story? Still fascinated after all these years, we sought to create pieces that would dip just a little into the color and texture of Maasai life.

Feel beautiful.

In honor of the great Elhadji Koumama, Jeweler of the Desert, we created new pieces with elements his family has been forging for generations.

The Tuareg only work in silver for it is considered the metal of the Prophet Mohammed.  Thought to bring good luck, the Tuareg create their pieces through a method of lost wax casting-each element is made one by one by hand. See a video of Elhadji at work here– even his voice is beautiful.

The best part? You can meet Elhdji Koumama if you happen to be going to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Festival this weekend.  Let me know if you get a chance to meet him- you will be struck by his quiet love of jewels, and his fervent pride of such a solid tradition.

The colors of Tibet are calling me.  Red coral, blue turquoise.

Why?  I can’t say it’s physical, like a thirst.  I’m not being dragged into Buddhist philosophy, which could likely cause my Greek grandmother to spit out her stuffed tomatoes and point her fork at me menacingly.  It’s my search for the answer to “what defines beautiful?”  I look to other cultures, especially ancient ones, to help me understand why the peace within is really the determining factor that makes us feel beautiful.

How to get that peace?  Ah, grasshopper, this is in your very hands.  The Tibetans believe that coral is the force of life, it feeds our blood and makes our juices flow.  And turquoise?  It is the stone of wisdom, spiritual journeys, a symbol of the limitless.  Tibetan women slather themselves in these rocks, gifts of the earth, as if to say:  O yeah, sisters.  I have all of this and more- I am strong, I am invincible, I am… GIRL you know the rest.

SING IT out loud.

Feel beautiful,

Soph

Whoah.

Beauty is courage in the face of adversity.

War is messy.  Wait.  More than messy.  It’s indescribable.  I remember listening to stories from my Yiayia (grandmother) and thinking to myself- man, my biggest angst in my life is that the popular girls call each other up on Thursdays to wear a skirt and why didn’t they call me cuz I am so flippin’ cool?

This talented mother of 11 has seen war since her childhood.  She is a citizen of the newest nation on earth: South Sudan.  She is gathering funds to sell at the amazing Santa Fe International Folk Market this July.  I hope to be there to meet her in person.

Ms. Mary creates Dinka corsets: “Unmarried girls traditionally wear the Dinka corset; the size and color communicates the girl’s age, her status in society, her family’s background, and especially the family’s expectations of dowry.”

Adornment is human expression.  It says, this is who I AM.  This is who I WANT TO BE.         BAM.