I create jewelry that is inspired by the natural world and a scientist’s understanding of it. I look to both geology and biology for charts, graphs, and maps of this world around us. I look to the skyline of the city, to animal vertebrae, and to the bone of a cephalopod.
My techniques range from sterling silver cuttlefish casting, to lost-wax casting, to metal fabrication of silver, gold, and platinum. In another process of fabrication I build a layered metal known as mokumé gane, meaning wood-grain metal in Japanese. It is an ancient technique of metal layering first used to work varied alloyed steel into mokumé swords. Before anything else, however, I approach a piece of jewelry with an intense, almost obsessive, fascination with gemstones and their origins.
My interests in jewelry began on my family’s annual summer cross-country camping trips. My parents are both scientists, and my father, an amateur fossil hunter. As I discovered the fossilized remains of ancient plant and animal life, I also turned up rocks and uncovered roadside outcroppings like buried treasure.
Later trips included hunting the Missouri River in Montana for Sapphires and pullin
At different times over the past decade I’ve pursued interests varying from theatre and photography to sound design. Throughout this time I have kept jewelry as a constant outlet of expression because of the endless possibilities in designing the reaction between humanity and nature, a world that surrounds and imbues us.