As I’ve worked on more art objects than jewelry this year, I’ve been paying closer attention to the varied ways I accomplish creative projects. 2024 was an entire year of hyperfocus as I worked on both the exhibition Radiant Echoes and its monograph. I fully admit it, sitting at my desk, clicking my Mac mouse…
Books are wildly intimate things. Books can be funnels: small openings that lead into larger spaces. From the moment I open one, I sense an unfolding that draws me into a portal that expands my sense of time.
Creating books, however, has an opposite effect. Imagine starting at the open end of the funnel and having to compress all the information that narrows to the opening…
The last 7 months have been an epic adventure into my own archive for my 35th anniversary retrospective. I’ve immersed myself in a world of tasks and decisions that surround bringing the legacy of my metalwork into accessible formats. As the big reveal gets nearer, I wanted to give you a glimpse into the process…
Spring here is now Jedi season as baby barred owls Leia and Rey have emerged from the hollow in my neighbor’s nesting tree that looks like it was drawn by E. H. Shepard for a Winnie the Pooh story. Learning to fly is no easy task even if you’re born with wings. The landing part…
After becoming slightly obsessed with a chased gold cylinder from ancient Nubia that I saw last summer, I began experimenting with what I call micro chasing. I created this chased bead from seamless, sterling tubing (Rio Grande’s largest diameter). By slightly altering the order of Eastern repoussé steps I employ to refine my repoussé pieces…
I recently took an online art history course in Ancient Jewelry through the Penn Museum. The instructor Dr. Jane Hickman showed tons of gorgeous granulation jewelry from antiquity (along with filigree that’s really also granulation because it’s fused to a base sheet). As she was endeavoring to explain to the non metalsmiths in the course…
When I was trading skills with my friend Rauni Higson in Wales this past December, the wonderful women from Little Metal Foxes asked me back for Tool Tip Tuesdays, this time to help Rauni give a studio tour. It’s a chance to see her incredible work up close in a relaxed setting. Enjoy! If you’ve…
