Nature is the muse that informs my aesthetics and instills in me a visual vocabulary. Spoons presented a unique opportunity to explore a new form, a hybrid of my jewelry applied to a historically functional form. All my works – whether baskets, vessels, jewelry or installations – are sculptural studies. The fact that any of them are functional at all is almost incidental to the poetic qualities I seek. Each piece is born through a series of sketches, exploring a concept, a notion or merely a whim. The sketch matures into fabricated forms over which polymer clay hollowware sections are built, or various solid forms are fabricated over reinforced armatures.

Through repeated cycles of fabrication and oven curing, the pieces grow layer by layer. Each color you see is the actual color of the clay. The patterns and lines are not surface decoration or paint, but carved or incised details backfilled with contrasting colors of clay, cured at each stage. An individual piece can easily go through 20 – 30 fabrication/curing cycles and take weeks or months to complete. When the finished piece is assembled this conversation is complete, but the dialogue continues.