Origin

Cate’s on Fire is an antique and contemporary fine jewelry brand that finds and forges treasures through the unusual lens of visual art curator and antique collector Deb Klowden Mann. Founded in 2020 during the eerie stillness of a global pandemic, Cate’s was born as antique jewelry collecting united an eclectic band of lonely wildlings into a tight-knit community. Brought to life through alchemic gem pairings, a passion for light, and powerful protection magic, our pieces encourage physical adornment as a celebration of embodiment and connection across time, and are crafted with love in Los Angeles.

Cate is the name I gave my shadow side, the version of me that is more Morgan and Medea than Alcestic and Snow White. She wants power, and luxury, and she could heal you or explode you depending on her moods, which are often capricious and certainly not nice.

Cate is also, very specifically, the name I gave my Queen Right Ovary, First and Last of her name. Until recently she was the last remaining vestige of organs that breathed fire until they were removed, after 10 surgeries and every Western and Eastern treatment I could find.

Cate rules over the women who came before and the women who will come after. She is also my nervous system, the power and resistance encoded in my DNA as both the oppressor and the oppressed see my body as a battlefield and a source of pleasure, as violence and grace. Cate is literally on fire because both Western and Eastern agree that she is too much to ever exist entirely in balance. She recognizes that rage is generative, and so is beauty. And she loves all of it, even as she sometimes burns it all to the ground.

Cate recognizes that the body that fails to exist within expected parameters is a site of power and resistance. And she knows that connection and power are always there when we reach for one another.