Her Highness Sheikha
Fatima Bint Mohammed
Bin Saqr Al Qassimi

Scheherazade’s Coffer

Oh, no! She does not resemble at all those languishing odalisques from the paintings of Delacroix..she is neither shy, nor mysterious.
She is simply a young woman of our times, a very friendly, very direct one, with clear eyesight and a trenchant way of expressing herself.
Yes, she masters very well the art of conversation... she is always smiling and always paying attention to details.
Very elegant, she has an own style to wear the Abaya, and something else that I don’t recognise, in which she puts the sheila around her head.

She is a born artists... small mischievous hands, all-encompassing and very vigilant eyes, merry and active ... she has something that unexpectedly reminds of Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.... except that the young woman I refer to and that is wearing indeed Tiffany sunglasses and Tiffany bracelet is not Truman Capote’s character, but a young artist from Ras Al Khaimah, sipping from a cup of cappuccino, while admiring the waves of the most beautiful sea in the world.

She tells me about the emirate led by her family, about the famous Ghos Town, about the unusually red sand, about her grandfather, who died several years before and remained for ever her hero and her part of a legend.

Today Ras Al Khaimah is ruled by the modern Ruler His Highness Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qassimi. His wonderful spouse Her Highness Sheikha Hana Bint Juma Al Majid , daughter of the famous businessman and philanthropist Juma Al Majid , early this year, just offered a valuable gift to the Emirate: 1700 sqm platform, a splendid location for all religious, cultural and social festivities, festivals and encounters to celebrate special moments of joy and happiness.

The royal couple Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr and Sheikha Hana, parents of 6 children, are very much interested to create a modern atmosphere of living for the young generation, keeping alive in the same time the treasures of the past.

Ras Al Khaimah is a marvelous territory of legends ,ancient stories and amazing landscape.

From Ras Al Khaimah I have the most beautiful memories and a long , warm friendship over the years. I always call Ras Al Khaimah my second home.

The purple colours of Hajar Mountains, the golden red flamboyant sand under the sun or rain, the blue sky and serene sea, give me always that kind of feeling of being part of a fairy tale.

The old souk , the coffee, tea, dates, sweets, or the marvelous elegant and chic Shakespeare Cafe, all that places are forever engraved in my mind and soul.

The amazing Waldorf Astoria, the emblematic hotel styled as a huge palace is the pride of the Emirate.

With the most romantic view ever, fabulous architecture surrounded by amazing green plants, palm trees and red gardenia flowers and decorated with splendid orchids,Waldorf Astoria Rak offers not just a touch of romance and style but the superlative of elegance and luxurious niveaux, beyond dreams and imagination.

Iam a poetess, I believe in colours, sounds and beauty.
Ra’s Al Khaimah is that kind of place to challenge any tourist or visitor’s expectations. Between the old, ancient relics and the modern malls like the newest Grove Village or the futuristic Sustain Art Gallery is a long history of development and visions, ambitions and creativity.
Fatima bint Mohammed bin Saqr Al Qassimi- this is the name of the young jewel designer, maybe the most talented one from the United Arab Emirates.
The granddaughter of the wise Sheikh Saqr Al Qassimi, she inherited not only his fine and majestic profile, the face of a Bedouin princess, but also the strong and invincible nature.
Fatima Al Qassimi looks at me clearly and directly, when she tells me “I don’t waste my time with people I don’t love – life is short”.

She loves details, as they are a significant part in creation art. Yes, Fatima creates jewels and each creation, design itself is pondered, worked, felt to the smallest details ... “Details make the difference” she tells me and further talks about the Queen of Sheba, the Hajjar Mountains, the beaches attacked in ancient times by pirates or about her legendary grandfather, who is said to have been among the most monarchs with the longest reigns in the world, but also a great wise man...
Fatima Al Qassimi loves everything modern, she welcomed me at the steering-wheel of a Porsche that she handles with special talent, she loves speed and she socializes in a stunning manner with all those she encounters.
People love her, she has the talent of winning very quickly new friends... she loves Kandinsky, she loves Picasso, she loves modern sculpture – the Great Brancusi!!!, linear, simple, white furniture... but when she passionately and buoyantly shows me her sketchbook, here in the most wonderful place on Earth, at Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaimah, from this magical moments under the colours of the most beautiful sunset lighting up my face and my soul... I suddenly and unexpectedly enter the perfumed room of Scheherazade and through the hands of Fatima miraculously opens as an OPEN SESAME the enchanted chest of the most beautiful jewels I’ve ever seen.

Yes, Fatima Al Qassimi is talented. In her talent I recognize the nostalgia of Romantic times former times and now, here, among the pages of her sketches and drawings minutely performed with one single hand and eager to perfection... yes, here I immediately understand that a young jewel designer is not only a modern face of our times: but an art creator, an artist expressing her entire pallet of emotions, tenderness, dreaming, romanticism of her ancestral Bedouin soul in each created piece, collar, ring, Paradise birds, palm tree leaves, earrings or bracelets, managing to reinterpret the old Bedouin jewels in a modern aura, but keeping intact the patina of time.

Fatima Al Qassimi – the one driving fast cars – well, this very same Fatima, by everything she creates, by the sophisticated meshes and filigrees minutely decorated with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, turquoises, is consolidating her own road, as a tunnel, as an echo from past to present, towards her own, unique, unmistakable future of an artist, jewel designer living her own story.

“To be modern means does not mean to give up legends, but create legends durable in time”... this is the leitmotif of Fatima Al Qassimi, who is preparing not only the launching of the own jewel collection, but rather the entry on the red international carpet, on traditional Bedouin music, encircled in her Abaya with the grace and conviction that the story her jewels shall last in time like a message that art in born in any corner of the world, sending also the echo with lights and joys for all us of.

What inspires you in making your jewels?
Life. Dreams. The past. The present.
What do you understand by jewel design?
It is like a conversation with history, with stories, with legends.
What do you create out of pleasure? Decoration objects or jewels?
Decoration objects, such as e.g. the Blue Peacock from Waldorf Astoria, as well as the collection of brooches in animal forms created in precious stones are all actually jewels ... I don’t create out of pleasure, but with LOVE ....Art without Love is not Art What is the modern part of your personality and what is the – let’s
say – nostalgic part of your inner artist?
I am modern and practical when I clearly and directly ask, who is buying and where the objects I create go to.
This issue is not at all indifferent to me.
In regard to the romantic nostalgic side, well I am very emotional in regard to the precious stones and the perfection of some mesh ... as in the stories of Scheherazade, where words run melodiously and embracing. 

A jewel should be able to excite, to vibrate, to reach the eyes and the soul ...
What is your favourite brand?
Cartier!! Wonderful and perfect!
What is the trend in what you create?
My trend is to include, transfer at least a bit from Ras Al Khaimah in each piece created by me ... we have in this wonderful place both the most colour tones, the ancient musicality, the extravagant nature with mountains and valleys ... well, all put together could be actually my following jewel collection for the European space.
What personality inspires you in the life of a human and the artist concurrently?
I have one single hero and I know only one legend Sheikh Saqr Al Qassimi, mu grandfather.
What painter inspires you?
Picasso. Yes, he is modern, but he can concurrently cross time and back on the wings of the wind.. by the forms and colours that are so odd, but also perfect.
You studied at the Sharjah University..what kind of student were you?
Impulsive and rebellious.
If I told you to describe a particular jewel created by you and compare such to someone from the family?
My grandmother, Sheikha Aysha, mother Aysha, well she is a pearl collar ...the pearls from Scheherazade’s hair ..I created precisely such a collar to my grandmother and it looks indeed so beautiful that it seems depicted from one of Delacroix’s paintings...
How do you describe you first collection of jewels, your brooches drawn as animals, birds, flowers so unusual in concept, shape, colours?
Moments of my life. My trips. My thoughts.
What does the first part of your jewel collection mean?
It is simply my CREATION AS AN ARTIST. For all of you.

Monica Mergiu