An Herbarium in Metal

I am trained as a botanist. Collecting, pressing, preserving, presenting and curating plant material is a common part of the field botanist’s professional practice. When I learned to press plants into metal, it felt like the perfect marriage of artistic expression and classic scientific cataloging.

I use the same techniques and adhere to the same ethical principles for collecting plant material for my jewelry as I do for scientific collection. I am very fond of native California flora and primarily use these plants in my work.

Apart from my designs with plants, I am also inspired by more simplistic and southwestern styles. I enjoy designing jewelry that can be worn by men and women alike. The simplistic and southwestern styles lend themselves to this and allow me to reminisce on the time I lived in the high desert.

Leather

I am a recent practitioner when it comes to the art of leather work. I have been fortunate to have taken some courses at the Mendocino Art Center for the last couple of years from incredible leather artist Allison Sattinger. I don’t know where this recent passion will take me, but I’m enjoying the journey. I look forward to integrating my long time passions with this new found love.

Bead Work

A long time ago, I lived in the desert and had a lot of time on my hands. One of the few simple pleasures that life offered were trips to the local library. There, I found a few books on the art of bead work. Between the library and a sad little crafting store in town, I was able to commandeer the rudimentary tools of the trade. I started with some simple stringing and weaving.

Fast forward several years to living in Montana on a reservation. Again, time was plentiful as the winter is long up there. The main town on the reservation had a wonderful beading supply store so I decided to rekindle my earlier love for the work. This time I learned new techniques and experimented with different beads and incorporated stones. Soon, I was selling my beaded barrettes and pouches to my coworkers at the village restaurant.

I still get the urge to bead. There’s something about the repetition of adding tiny bead after bead, sometimes hundreds, until there’s a finished product. It calms the mind. It is a mantra that says ‘every little bit leads to the big’ and in times of trouble, ‘this too shall pass’ as each little bead is a stitch in time. I think one of my favorite things about bead work is how good it feels to touch when it’s done - like scales on a snake or the arm of a tortoise.