I make art because it completes me. Art challenges me and stuns me with beauty. It moves me into a different dimension away from my anxieties and into a comfort zone of creating.

I work with stones that blaze with color from minerals of the earth. I manipulate metal for these stones creating textures I highlight, and sanding and polishing the metal soft enough to wear.

The art jewelry I create speaks to my childhood memories of slow summer days and sunlight dancing across water. I envision my walks on local gravel beaches and the flowers I care for in my garden.

My jewelry making is part creating art and part engineering a new idea. Where is the best place to put that ear post so the earring hangs right on the ear? How does the necklace bail work with the pendant design? And will the pendant hang correctly? Is the cuff bracelet comfortably shaped? All kinds of questions run through my head with each piece I design and make. I listen to the stones because they have a pretty good idea of what they want to be.

Whenever possible I use recycled silver, copper, brass, and gold metals. I may cut flat-back cabochon shapes from my collection of rough and slabbed stone, and I use cut stone and beads from folks in the lapidary trade. Much of my art jewelry is one of a kind, and I fall for each piece as it’s being created.