I invent songs – mostly tragicomical, occasionally serious – that often contain scientific, literary and/or historical references, Balkan, Renaissance, Celtic, vaguely jazzy and other musical elements, unusual rhythms (5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17) and bizarre but often ‘relatable’ subject matter (e.g. toad rescue, the fragility of civilisation, the importance of science and reason, social awkwardness, being a night owl, feeling lethargic, and of course, the starch apocalypse). I habitually perform them in and around San Francisco but also elsewhere (e.g. Japan). Some of my songs are on youtube (username: Formicola). (I also have a scandalously underpopulated bandcamp site, The Dreichness). I’ve sung in various bands, mostly Balkan (Greek, Bulgarian etc), most recently Katun in Michigan; I’ve also sung and played the shamisen in a Minyo (Japanese folk music) ensemble in San Francisco. I have studied Bharatanatyam and Kathak (two classical Indian dance forms). I occasionally sing jazz standards and international songs in the duo ‘Sushi and Spaghetti‘ (guitar, bass and vocals), or sometimes the trio ‘Sushi, Spaghetti and Cheeseburger’ (with a saxophone), in San Francisco.

I design and make my own clothing (skirt suits, dresses, coats and other bitties e.g. crinolines, hairbands etc) and also produce handmade embroidery and tatted lace, including edgings for clothes and lace jewellery. My garments have large pockets. Examples of my clothing and crafts are on the ‘custom clothing’ and ‘lace, lace jewellery and embroidery’ pages of this website.

I have a PhD about contemporary Iranian criminal courts from the University of Edinburgh (the abstract is here), and have written the chapter on post-revolutionary Iranian law in the Oxford Handbook of Islamic Law (Oxford University Press, 2015, edited by Anver M. Emon and Rumee Ahmed). Since 2016 I am the English translator for the Italian Academy of Cuisine, whose History of Italian Cuisine in Comics I have translated into English (and my husband has translated it into Japanese); I’ve also translated an admittedly obscure biography of the bishop Tommaso Reggio (Basadonna, Giorgio. Sulle tracce di Tommaso Reggio, Vescovo di Ventimiglia, Arcivescovo di Genova. Milan: Gribaudi, 1998).

I am a native speaker of Italian and British English, with six years’ proofreading, translation and interpreting experience with Alpha Translation and Interpreting in Edinburgh (UK), which took me all over Scotland to interpret in a variety of settings including trials, police interrogations, film festivals and other cultural festivals, conferences, and of course ghost tours. After moving to North America due to marriage I have continued performing translation and interpreting work in the same vein, often during such events as the San Francisco International Film Festival and the New Italian Cinema Events film festival as well as during visits by foreign dignitaries and academics. I have been a volunteer translator for three Iranian human-rights organisations since 2010 (translating letters from political prisoners, legal documents pertaining to their trials, press releases and so on).

The logo for formicable is very roughly based on the structure of the formic acid molecule (formic acid is produced by ants) – but is itself composed of collaborative ants, ready to embark on some intriguing new project perhaps. People have always called me ‘Ant’ and that is why this website (the name, the logo) and some things I make (the kanji for ‘Ant’ embroidered on some of my clothes) have something of an ant theme. Ants are formicable creatures after all.

Contact: formicable.handicrafts@gmail.com.