Syrian Folk Art do-over

I don’t know why it took me so long to do this Syrian Folk Art revival but now thanks to Tulip, kind refugees, and residents here in America we are in the thick of it.

I started collecting dolls at age ten and Sara my first was a result of fasting the whole month of Ramadan. For every day I fasted my father rewarded his three children one dollar and I took it all to the one and only posh toy store in 1970 Damascus and purchased her. Sara was twenty inches tall.

The following year we flew to Metropolis Illinois to spend the summer with my American mother’s family and on the way we stopped in Czechoslovakia, In Prague I fell in love with a modern doll featured in an elaborate doll shop, she was dressed in knee length modern folklore clothing adorned with woven floral ribbons and my parents let me have her. Later in life I added a sweet countryside Russian doll that was a gift from my mother and my collection began.

In 1998 at a contemporary Fort Mason Craft show I was participating in with my thirteen year old daughter Jasmine next to the Golden Gate Bridge, I spotted this beautiful young artist that looked like Drew Barrymor, her booth was full of hand painted silk textiles but what caught my eye were a handful of textile dolls made of cotton and they had hips. Later that month we rendezvoused at my favorite Masse Patisserie in Berkeley where I was living at that time, somehow I convinced the artist to collaborate with me on a collection of a hundreds Dolls exclusively made out of archive textiles from previous fashion collections I designed and had saved over the years, she agreed to my proposal but said that she would try for it but maybe not the full number I suggested. “Drew” had just returned to the States and had her heart brocken by a Frenchman, she was under funded and needed to buy her way over to Italy to start a new life as an English teacher and I came into her life at the perfect time. I kept ten out of the 78 completed doll collection she made for me, the hand painted faces and renaissance headgear made the Doll collection worth the experience and effort. 

We never crossed paths again but later on I found a Japanese American doll maker on Valencia street in SF around 2001 and collected Laku’s porcelain and velvet dolls one by one. Each had a vintage bust and fine arms and hands. She was excellent at rose and velvet sculpting-sewing and used a lot of rich reds and sky blues. I managed to keep some away from my retail clients over in Menlo Park, well at least eight of dolls and now sixteen years later they sit in a guest bedroom on a Chartreuse tray.

When Tulip Kurdi found me on Pinterest and tracked me down I was intrigued to say the least. When she told me that she was of Syrian heritage and loved Syrian arts and crafts I thought that she sounded too good to be true. A few phone calls later Tulip announced that she is flying out to meet me! Two full days running around together in San Francisco we hit it off from the start, Tulip is the perfect bright eyed muse creative artists love and just like Sharon Stone’s character in one of her movies, Tulip dresses and acts the part perfectly. Ring? Yes many on all fingers, scarves and accessories...why not, energy she has plenty of it maybe as much as I have. So a year later when we pondered the plight of Syrians and the never ending war, she began to tell me first hand stories about her relatives, how they are now all spread across the continents even American states. Families split up and some lost at sea.

We both have a common need to preserve our history and art but our sad countrymen and women and Syria in general had all a paralyzing effect on women around us in particular.  A few more phone calls later, Aida and Tulip the Collection was born. Modern Syrian Folk Art is a cause worth the long hours of consentration each day including weekends, of course it is hard work but the volunteers, the Syrian Americans, and refugees make it all worthwhile. Women empowerment works both ways and lush textiles, silk and wool floss and embroidery threads have a part to play as well.

I now feel much stronger than the past six years and the hours at work followed by Doll making into the early hours of the morning is good for the soul,  but it is the sisterhood that I treasure most.