Designs and customs

Rym Tina Ghazal

• Last Updated: June 10. 2008 1:56PM UAE / June 10. 2008 9:56AM GMT

Sheikha Fatima Al Qassimi shows a piece of jewellery she made for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The circular gold medallion is engraved with an Arabic poem named Dream of a Nation. Ryan Carter / The National

Sitting on the patio of her family beach house in Ras al Khaimah overlooking a violent sea, Sheikha Fatima Al Qassimi smiles at no one in particular as she sips her third cup of coffee before diving into her latest jewellery designing brainstorming session.

“You can find inspiration everywhere,” says the Ras al Khaimah royal, squinting at the sunset before taking out a black velvety box containing one of her favourite designs.

“What do you think?” she asks, holding up a chunky ring made of three different coloured stones, blue to signify the sea, brown to signify the mountains and yellow to symbolise the desert –a ring she fondly calls the “RAK ring”.

Sheikha Fatima is the latest member of the northern emirate’s ruling family to embark on the road of fashion and art, following in the footsteps of male and female cousins who design everything from clothes to furniture, and other relatives who paint for a living.

While still undecided about whether to use her title when naming her line of jewellery, Sheikha Fatima is determined to lead a “revolution” and leave a “glamorous mark” in the world of jewellery design.

“I was born to do this,” says Sheikha Fatima, who did the unthinkable and worked in traditional jewellery souks across the country to get a “feel” for the jewellery market.

“No one knew I was a sheikha. I sold, bought, bargained, designed and watched the industry from behind the counter,” she says.

After a dip in fine arts and several odd jobs here and there in fashion, the 28-year-old sheikha finally settled this year on designing jewellery – much to the dismay of her family.

“It was hard at first for them to accept my career path, but now they are wearing my designs,” she says with a broad smile.

With a degree in business and management from the University of Sharjah, a degree in jewellery business management from Higher Colleges of Technology in Dubai, and a jewellery design diploma from the International Gemological Institute, Sheikha Fatima is combining her business skills with her design flare and opening her own shop in Dubai.

“It is still in the process of being set up. Until then, I am working as the chief designer at a pearl factory,” she says.

Happy with the unlimited access to pearls of all colours and sizes at the Emirates and Japan Pearl Cultivation and Trading Company in Ras al Khaimah, Sheikha Fatima is ready to take on the jewellery industry in the region.

“I have major companies from countries like Saudi Arabia now contacting me and asking for an exclusive line of designs for them,” she beams.

Until recently, Sheikha Fatima had to struggle until she found people that will take her seriously and to find “just the right” workshop where she can make her designs.

“People tried to cheat me, and others didn’t take me seriously, as they saw a girl,” says Sheikha Fatima.

“The whole experience strengthened my personality and unspoiled me,” she says.

Now, on a regular basis, Sheikha Fatima can be seen over a hot stove at her jewellery workshop in Dubai, welding jewellery, casting, modelling, and hammering stones and twists onto her designs.

Often, her fingers are sore and cut as she spends all day supervising or making jewellery.

“My fingers have become like that of a mechanic,” she laughs.

Sheikha Fatima’s designs reflect their creator’s characteristics: “A little bit modern, and a little bit traditional and a lot of Fatima,” she says.

One of the sheikha’s most popular lines are rings and pendants of the first Arabic letters of people’s names twisted and reshaped to reflect their future owner’s personality.

“If I like the client and we click, the design just comes out better,” explains Sheikha Fatima.

The letter Sheen, with a moon rock, and the letter Lam, with a tiny rose, are the first letters of two clients names, and since the clients were “gentle”, Sheikha Fatima created designs reflective of that.

“The client’s attitude affects the design,” says Sheikha Fatima.

“When I design it’s not just about making a drawing and then making it into a piece of jewellery, but its about creating a beautiful piece unique to a person,” she says. “I don’t like to design without a story in my head and I love to create a relationship between the owner of the piece and the piece itself.”

For her uncle’s 25th marriage anniversary, Sheikha Fatima designed an elaborate pearl and white gold necklace, with the letters of her uncle, T, and his wife, N, embracing four pearls, each of which represents one of the uncle’s four children.

“I wanted to give them something personal and memorable,” she explains.

“Depending on the complexity of the design, prices range from 500 to thousands of Dirhams,” she says. Her clients include royalty from Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as well as VIPs from across the region.

“I am currently working on a special set for the Lebanese singer Najwa Karam made up of sea shells, pearls and diamonds,” she says.

In less than a year, Sheikha Fatima has designed and sold over 1000 pieces of jewellery, 500 rings and 500 pendants, but admits that she hasn’t saved much of what she made.

“I need a financial manger,” she jokes, as she spends whatever she makes on creating other designs and shopping.

Sheikha Fatima also designed a tribute necklace for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai – a square pendant holding a golden plate inscripted with a poem praising the history of the nation and held together with the country’s flag colour ribbons.

“Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum is my hero for his endless support to the youth and especially to the women in the country,” she explains as her reasons for dedicating the piece to him.

“He keeps me inspired and impresses me more every day,” she says.

Besides pendants, rings, and earrings, Sheikha Fatima designs “tie rings”, a special accessory inspired by her uncle.

“It is a fancy ring for a tie, as simple as that,” she says with a smile.

The young designer is working to develop a line of pendants shaped as golden palms with pearls in their centres for charity on autism.

“There needs to be more awareness about autism here – how it affects the parents and family life – and what better way to help than through buying something nice for yourself and at the same time helping raise funds for autism?” she says. She hopes to sell 1,000 pendants for the Dubai Autism Center, each for Dh999.

“It is a little pricey, but it is for a good cause and people spend far more on far less worthy causes,” she says.

Sheikha Fatima is also planning to open her first exhibition in November, which she will call Freedom to embody what she believes: “free spirit, free thinking, free imagination”.

“The are no limits to creativity. We are all free people but we limit ourselves by choice,” she says. “It is what Islam is all about as well. We are born not to be what we don’t want to be, we are free to choose, try and decide.”

As for who she would love to work with, Sheikha Fatima pauses for a few seconds before announcing: “Cartier.”

“Just classy,” she says. The young designer often jets off to Paris to wander its streets and sit in its cafes for inspiration.

“There is just something about Paris,” she says with a dreamy look in her eyes.

One of Sheikha Fatima’s favourite designers is Ambaji Shinde, who designed jewellery for Indian princes and Hollywood stars. Sheikha Fatima says she would have loved to have worked with him but he died in 2003.

“That is what is beautiful about this field, your designs live forever,” she says.

But while she gets her inspirations from France and India, Sheikha Fatima admits that her heart will always belong to the UAE.

“There is no pure local brand of jewellery, and so I hope through my designs, we, the Emirati, can someday leave a mark in this artistic field,” she says.

Until then, Sheikha Fatima’s designs are quickly growing in demand, and for now, are called “FQ jewellery.”

“When I see someone wearing my designs, I feel so blessed and happy,” she said. “I can’t contain myself, and find myself screaming out loud, ‘Look look, she is wearing an FQ’.”