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When I’m not hunting for dinosaur bones in Alberta or 40,000 year old mammoth ivory in Alaska, I am traveling the world in my pajamas, mouse in hand, pursuing my love affair with beads. Since we’ve walked upright, beads have made us beautiful, not to mention being traded for medicine, a goat, or even a spouse. In fact, the Egyptians placed mummy beads in their tombs in order to guarantee a safe passage to heaven.
My childhood love of rock and bone turned into an adult curiosity in creating these materials as a wearable art form. An additional love of African art propelled me into the world of beads; how they were made, who made them, how they designated status, how they have been treasured through time. Texture, volume, light, history – soon, I was addicted to searching out unusual beads and stories told about them. From a friend on an island in Alaska with ancient walrus teeth to a South Dakota tribe who craft elegant buffalo bone to another tribe in the hills of Thailand who handcraft silver to my friend from the Ivory Coast, Bangally, who is an expert in the beads of his country – these are my suppliers. Wearing these beads is like wearing our history. They reflect our ongoing connection to those who have gone before us, to the earth, to what we, ourselves, will leave behind.
I live in Greenwich Village in a roomful of African ceremonial dancing belts and masks and mud cloth. There are beads and bones and animals in every room, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I'd love to hear from you about what you've seen or what you want to see. Special requests and/or commissions are welcome.
If you have questions or a
special request, please email me or phone (212.414.1241).
My studio is open by appointment.
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