One of my earliest memories is being in nursery school, molding a lump of clay.   It wasn’t that I thought I was making something beautiful; it was in the process that I found wonder.  The pleasure of working with my hands has been a dominant theme in my life, as has my fascination in ornamentation that involved natural objects.  As a child, I made jewelry from seashells, already interested in flowing lines and the interplay of light and shadow.

When I was an art student, I became fascinated by drapery, both in classical sculpture and Renaissance painting.  I like to incorporate this love of the flow of fabric into my gem carvings and set pieces.  An opal becomes a piece of gathered fabric, and also a prism of refracted light.  I am always looking for the long, sensuous line to define what a stone could and should be.

I think of my pieces as more than sculpture; the carving of the gem is only one part of the vision.  The gem in its setting must also be in balance because there is a harmony between the jewel and the wearer.  I enjoy the challenge of finding that balance and harmony through the discipline of crafting exquisite jewels.  A true jewel is one that once removed leaves its imprint, its memory, where it was, where it was meant to be.

I seek to create timeless designs inspired by the stones themselves, teasing out the rhythmic patterns in nature.  The response I want to my jewelry is for the someone to reach for the piece, wanting to explore its lines and caress it.  What I found to be pleasurable to create, I want the owner to find pleasurable to hold and wear.

I have gone to the ends of the earth to find the most excellent and precious rough for my creations.  Here are some photos from a recent expedition to Madagascar in search of rare and precious sapphires . . .