The Christmas I was five years old, family friend Roddy Noll gave me the coolest, weirdest board game that quite literally changed my life and set me on my path. Without this gift and the kindness I was shown as a young child, I wouldn’t be a metalsmith, and I wouldn’t have the privilege of…
Read to the end for some very good news! With half my readers being in the US, I feel the need, or perhaps the pressure, to say Happy Thanksgiving. While there are many things I am deeply grateful for, such as all of you very dear followers of my work(!), I have to admit this…
On a trip to New Orleans back in 2017, my husband Chris and I stumbled upon this outdoor bar, in a lovely little courtyard, nestled between two buildings in the French Quarter. The live jazz band, playing swinging arrangements of old standards had drawn us in. In the midst of too much work as usual,…
I have an all out obsession with peacock feathers. Their rich hues and exotic feel first captured my attention in the mall store World Bazar when I was a child in the 70’s. For decades I never did anything about this obsession mostly because “serious art students” should never take inspiration in anything so cliche….
It’s always gratifying to see one’s name in print or hear it said on air. It’s even better if what is printed or said makes things better for other people. I’ve been fortunate this fall to be quoted in two radically different formats, on two completely different topics that are both near and dear to…
The following is a reboot of a post from 2012 with a surprise new ending. I have this super vivid and fairly recent memory of writing the original post in a moment of nostalgia at the old Octane Coffee shop in my neighborhood and was shocked to discover that I’d written it just over 7…
When it comes to birthdays and holidays, it’s a toss up whether my husband is happier to give me complete surprises or whether he likes having me pick out exactly what I want. He jokes that he’s lucky because, being married to a tool junkie, he gets out of the no-plugs-on-presents-for-your-wife rule. – For our…
