Why I Make Jewelry

My first experiences with jewelry were when I was a child digging through my mother’s jewelry box fingering her precious pieces that she brought with her from Burma- pieces of her story and my heritage whispered to me by mythical creatures and dancing maidens carved out of ivory, jade, ruby, silver, & gold urging me to try them on and imagine myself as one of those dancing Burmese girls in a tropical place, rather than a mixed race American girl in cold Minnesota. A silver bangle stamped “Siam” on the back with bare breasted dancers on the front told me stories that I had heard,

like the time my aunt had to throw all the jewelry out of an upstairs window into the garden below to keep them from being stolen by thieves who were raiding the home.

And there have been stories of my own that have become interwoven, such as the time

when I was 7 years old, when I wore a gold bracelet that I had snuck out of my mother's jewelry box to school that day. Upon its safe return home and to the dinner table, my parents looked upon my wrist with surprise and alarm as they told me that I had worn a piece of my mother's and my own inheritance to school that day.

 It was not so unheard of in my mother's day and location to wear your inheritance literally on your sleeve as some of my favorite pieces of hers were buttons made of jewels, silver, or gold that she and her sisters shared by sewing onto their garments each time one of them had a particular special occasion.

I carried stories like these with me until I discovered silver smithing in a high school art class, rediscovering it again in college, and after graduating with a fine arts degree I dabbled in various diverse areas, working with fabric arts, photography, costume design for theater, graphic design, advertising, and even children’s art therapy, but always returning to jewelry making.

 Each time I did, it was like opening my mother's jewelry box, like returning home.

After college, I learned much working in multiple custom jewelry shops, doing everything from apprenticing to sales to design, but learning enough to know that

Art jewelry was where my heart was in comparison to mainstream jewelry for the masses.

These experiences have served to inform my work and the themes of my life, but my true inspiration was yet to come, with the passing of my father in 2000, and shortly soon after the birth of my first daughter, and 3 years later the arrival of my second daughter.  Both births were such empowering and transformative birth experiences through which I saw the cycle of life spiraling on urging me to explore the feminine through my work.

A dear friend and midwife of mine inspired me with her own clay female forms (forever thanks to Racha!) and Goddess Bellies were born, along with a strong desire to explore goddess folklore and our mystical connection to the Earth while translating these stories into wearable art.

The female form reveals Herself to me through materials that come from the Earth- metals, clay, gemstones, and as a piece emerges from these substances a sense of balance and well-being gathers within my own soul. I am happy with my work when I can connect with it viscerally, touching it and working on it with all my senses, and when it becomes more than ornament— a piece that carries a symbolism of ancient lore, a vessel glowing from within that might connect one with their own sense of Divine. My artistic vision culminates when a creation of mine becomes a vessel for someone else, a symbol promoting healing, balance and connection to carry meaning for others through this labor we call Life.