Jewelry is such a personal thing. It is a statement of who we are. Or maybe it is a way that we can share with the world what we consider to be beautiful. No matter how different our culture, how different the year that we lived our individual lives, we as humankind have always had this thing in common. From the beginning of civilization we have desired to express ourselves in the form of wearable art.
My earliest memories were of dreaming and creating. As a child I was fortunate enough to have the mentorship of my mother and grandmother who showed me how to use my mind to visualize beauty in the rarest of places and my hands to make everyday things into objects of beauty and whimsy. My grandmother taught me how to use tools to build the things that I needed or just desired. My mother's gift of creativity and ingenuity have been a lifelong inspiration for me that I hope will continue for many years to come.
WITH THE SKILLS I LEARNED EARLY IN LIFE coupled with formal adult education I have transformed my dreams of shape, dimension and texture into technically thought out objects of wearable art.
My greatest joy is to begin with an idea and a flat sheet of precious metal and form it by hand and tool into a beautiful sculpture. My greatest challenge is then transforming it into something wearable. It is by great curiosity and enthusiasm, careful planning, constant learning of fundamentals and technique and a great sum of trial and error that I go through this process to create works on a daily basis.
No matter where I am I see possibilities all around me. My muses are continually presenting themselves in the beautiful shapes of nature as well as the urban textures of the life that I have come to love so much.
Metalsmithing, (i.e. the forming of precious metal into wearable art) is an obsession of which I hope I will never find a cure. Whether I am learning a new technique, utilizing a new tool or working with a specific shape I have a need to explore it to its farthest depths until I have exhausted all possible ways that it can be used. This love keeps me up at night. It wakes me early in the morning. And it inspires and fuels me almost every waking moment of my day. I have never been happier.