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Perhaps I was a crow, fox or pack rat in a previous life, a gatherer
of anything bright and shining. As a child my favorite things were
the biggest box of crayons I could find and anything that shimmered.
Just to gaze at these things was a quiet pleasure. Although I never
actually wore much jewelry, I loved the look and feel of it, especially
the unusual. I grew up and life went on. But I still
took pleasure in ornamentation and found much satisfaction in jewelry design
and crafts.
Eventually there were so many beads, findings and finished jewelry everywhere
that I decided to offer pieces to family and friends. Their gratifying
response was, "This is great! You should sell this stuff!" And so
I did, and so I do.
The inspiration for my designs comes from literally everywhere but there
are influences from my background in archaeology and anthropology.
Artifacts from different times and places have always fascinated me.
This could translate into creations using anything from shells and leather
to silver and lapis; inspired by a single mythic pendant or an intricate
web of gold chains and stones.
I prefer balance and symmetry in my designs and a finished look.
My main subversion is to take a component and, literally and figuritively,
turn it upside down or apply it in ways it was not intended. I often
add tiny touches with seed beads and spacers to make a piece look more
polished.
As I work through a piece I often create a personality in my mind's-eye...who
would wear this, where or when do they live, what do they do?
It's a way of living out other lives, similar to what an actor or anthropologist
does.
The most pleasure is in the design. I work in two ways.
The first is to have a specific "shape" in mind....several draping chains....a
strong inverted geomentric shape as a centerpiece..and so on. I then
start looking through my stock for specific components or colors that seem
to work with this template. Using this method I generally make my
own drawings and sketches. The second method I use is to simply take
some beads, findings and castings that strike my fancy and start putting
things together until I find something that "clicks". What could
be more fun than this...childhood revisited.
The actual crafting of a piece is tedious and time-consuming.
If a loop is not just right, it has to be redone. If elements aren't
flowing together the design may have to be changed in mid-construction.
If a chain doesn't drape well, I may rethink the whole piece and start
all over again. And I'm my own worst critic. But the satisfaction
I feel on completing a piece far outways this sometimes frustrating stage.
My only wish and hope is that the wearer derives as much pleasure from
wearing and displaying my designs as I do in creating them.
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