HEY EVERYONE- I’M REALLY HOPING YOU CAN HELP AND JOIN ME AT THIS OHMH EVENT! WE NEED YOUR DOLLARS SO GET YOUR ARSES DOWN THERE!!

HERE ARE A FEW REASONS WHY I’M INVOLVED:

After going to Africa numerous times, I was struck by the lack of human rights for women. Overall women are disregarded and often treated like objects for bartering. Very few women in southern Africa go past high school and are often traded, and in some tribes circumcised. When I was in Tanzania and Kenya, the men would kill the cattle and eat the meat. They would leave the organs for the women to eat. The women were considered less important and not worthy of eating meat.

I feel that this organization is one small step towards building an infrastructure in the community to help rehabilitate and educate women who are homeless, abandoned and considered worthless. The organization helps build a skill set to build self esteem and enter into the work place. This can only help future women to follow in their footsteps. I hope you come join me in welcoming and supporting this Charity.

AND CHECK OUT THE YOUTUBE VIDEO BELOW FOR SOME MORE INFORMATION! HOPE YOU CAN MAKE IT!

Lucite cameo with gamet and labradorite.

Woven Elizabethan neck form with onyx. It took 3 weeks to make.

Habibi makes it in OK Magazine… It’s gone straight to his head.

Mother’s Day is around the corner and it always prompts memories.  I figured I’d share two of them: one of my mother who protected me, and the other of how she helped me to discover art.

As a child, I was an altar boy at the Church of the Virgin Mary in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The service was spoken in Arabic and English, with a little bit of Greek added in.   Needless to say I understood only the English!  The pageantry of the service kept me riveted though, no matter how late the hour,  with the smell of the incense as a kind of extra stimulant.

One Good Friday service, when I was around 10 years old, I was doing my job as an altar boy and I was paired up with a rowdy, much older, Brooklyn kid for the ceremonial procession – priests, deacons and a raft of altar boys.  We were walking round and round the altar, bowing when we reached the front of it, for what seemed like an eternity. My fellow altar boy decided to tell me jokes to keep me amused and he made me laugh hysterically, to the point that I literally peed in my pants. I was wearing polyester pants (it was 1978 after all) and of course they did not absorb and became sticky and stinky. The priests were super cool about it and decided to do an impromptu extra walk or two  around the altar with paper towels slipped under their shoes so that they could quietly mop it up.

The entire congregation watched it transpire… I was HORRIFIED!  Here comes Mom after Mass, cool as a cat, acting like nothing had happened. She kept me under her wing when the service was done and acted like, “What’s your problem?” when people came up to me to say how sorry they were for me. I felt protected.

Next story.  When I was growing up in Bay Ridge on 101st and 4th Ave my parents were getting their doctorates at NYU and to supplement their income they were designing dresses.  They had rented the apt next to us for $50.  Yes $50!  Again, it was the 70’s. They used it as a studio to cut, hand dye, sew, and hand paint silk dresses.

My Mom  incorporated vintage embroidery from the 1920’s for the bodices and necklines.  Then they  would both hand paint all kinds of  blossoms on the ombred silk.  I would watch her hand move, in a very delicate way across the silk. It inspired me to see and create something from nothing.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom. I love you.

We were able to capture this photo of Cameron Diaz yesterday on The Today Show sporting our gold Miss H collar by John (our Web Manager) who was watching the Today Show while calling in “sick” from work. He said he wasn’t feeling well… do we believe him???

Neiman’s hosted a personal appearance in Chicago and some friends, new and old, stopped by. Here are three ladies all dressed up for the occasion.

Personal appearances are great. You get to see the whole gamut of our customer base. It’s incredible to know that people love the jewelry that much, and that they will spend part of a Saturday to say thank you for designing. I’m very grateful to everyone who came to say hello.

So Coldplay’s new video featuring Rihanna just premiered. I was psyched to be able to work with her and help do the jewelry. She’s giving serious 80’s China glamor.

She’s wearing Elements Gold Woven Earrings, and Elements Ring and some Miss Havisham bracelets there in the background.

Here’s the video and then some still shots below.

Spring has finally arrived! It’s a full on flower fest here in Brooklyn. I took some pics, hope you enjoy them!

This Egyptian Revival Bracelet from the 1920’s is 14k gold with enamel. In the 20’s people were OBSESSED with Egypt and it became a whole movement. Anything Egyptian Revival is always very desirable and collectable.

I’m obsessed with mourning jewelry. This bracelet is from the 1880’s and is 14k gold with turquoise and is made with woven hair which creates the snakes body. The snake biting his own tail is a theme that comes up a lot. The most interesting part of this bracelet is that the snakes head is also a locket.

This necklace is assembled from two separate Victorian pieces. The locket is one and the skull is another. It’s delicate and edgy which made it impossible for me not to have.

This thing is super cool. It’s an inkwell set. This is one of the most whimsical designs I’ve seen. It’s from the 1930s  and has a high aesthetic sensibility.

I was so impressed with this shoot. The photographer, Fabien Baron, used to run W Magazine and is now the Editorial Director for Interview. It was styled by Ludivine Poiblanc who is SO talented. I wanted to share it with you guys.

I love the simplicity of this bracelet. It’s from the 1880s and is made out of gutta-percha, which was one of the first plastics ever made in Victorian times (it was also used to make furniture and many other things). This bracelet has two thin 14k gold bands and the gutta-percha has the look of dark bronze. It’s a very classic feel, which in Victorian jewelry makes it stand out.

I had to have these clip on lady bug earrings! They’re super chic and perfect for spring.

I’m always a sucker for a beaded bag. This is a great example of deco design, the geometric pattern of the beads along with the clasp, it’s amazing. It’s still so modern and contemporary. I always find the 1930’s a great source of inspiration for clean futuristic designs.

These earrings… After seeing them I thought about them for days! They’re so beautiful and speak to a trend of fashion right now, this modern floral aesthetic. They’re perfect for a contemporary look but can also be passed down forever.  They’re from the 1940’s and are diamond, platinum, sapphire and ruby. You HAVE to have them!

The New York Times used this necklace I designed, a multi strand floor length necklace, for a photo shoot recently. Apparently the theme was “fish” and “ocean”…

I know I’ve talked about it a lot, but I was able to get a two day break and flew to Puerto Rico over the Passover and Easter. I adore Puerto Rico, it is THE perfect get-a-way. I stayed at the St. Regis again which does an impeccable job of a tropical resort centered in a declared Audubon Preservation Reserve. They nailed a perfect resort feel that’s 3.5 hours away from NY. That being said, everyone there’s from NY. This iguana was one of the many that I found in the reserve. Every other iguana ran the minute they heard me coming but this one never flinched.  I wasn’t sure if it was dead.  It wasn’t.

The other night it was Jeff’s birthday and he got to pick the movie. It was between Wrath of the Titans and The Hunger Games, both of which I was concerned about. We decided to go with The Hunger Games.  Reluctantly.  I thought it was going to be like Twilight. I was shockingly surprised! It felt like a modern adaptation of the movie Rollerball from the1970s,

combined with a The Wizard of Oz technicolor-dream-movie feel. The combination of the grim reality of the districts, the over the top Oz aesthetic, the fashion of The Capital, and a Patagonia sporting-goods-esque feel during the games, it’s a new formula. I found it thought provoking and disturbing at the same time, but still light in a “teenage heart-throbby” way. I give it a big thumbs up!