PORTRAIT
Crafting has always given me great happiness. I love to work with my hands; it's meditative and healing. I also love to write. I've been practicing these two art forms — making jewels and writing — since I was a little girl.
As a writer, I spend a lot of my time concerned with intangibles: images and emotions that live in my mind and heart. My ultimate hope is to create a contagious kind of beauty that's transmitted through words. As a metalsmith, I get to craft tangible objects, and this gives me a chance to create beauty in a different way. In casting and fabricating metal and gemstone jewels using traditional methods, I hope to share a kind of beauty that can adorn the body, symbolize significant milestones, be cherished for years, and be handed down from one wearer to another.
EDUCATION & INSPIRATION
I'm enchanted by totems, charms, and heirlooms — treasures that take on special significance because of the pleasure, power, and comfort they provide, the memories they summon, and the love they receive. I think there can be as much spark and magic — and certainly as much beauty — in objects as in words.
My writing and my jewelry making are linked by a desire to celebrate the senses. I believe we're on this earth in part to delight in what we see, smell, touch, hear, and taste. I'm passionate about both words and objects that evoke emotions and inspire strong sensory experiences, and I hope my offerings at Milk and Roses will make the adventure of being alive more vivid and pleasurable.
I took my first few metalsmithing classes at the Crafts Center of the University of California at San Diego and was immediately smitten. I completed additional classes in metal fabrication and lost wax casting at the Bear Canyon School of Art in Bozeman, Montana. I studied Literature as an undergrad, and earned MA degrees in English and Native American Studies. All aspects of my education converge: I'm inspired by the characters in my favorite novels when I make jewels, as well as by cultures in which adornments can have spiritual and symbolic significance and relationships to the natural world are strong.
TOOLS, MATERIALS & METHODS
My primary tools are a jeweler's saw, ring mandrel, mallet, small butane torch, and gem-setting instruments. The only machine in my shop is a small tumbler, used for polishing. I spend a lot of hands-on time with every item before it becomes available for purchase. Genuine (& mostly recycled) sterling silver and durable 14-karat gold fill comprise most of the jewelry I make, ensuring that each piece can last a lifetime and beyond. I'm very selective in sourcing my gemstones; each one is as individual as a person, with its own singular beauty and quirks — especially the rough ones, my favorites. I feel lucky to spend time with these fruits of the earth. Having worked as a florist for many years, I think of gemstones as flowers that never fade.
Milk and Roses is a one-woman operation. I do everything myself, from designing & making the jewelry and creating/maintaining this online shop to taking photos and interacting with customers.
My workshop is a small corner of my tiny, hundred-year-old home. Because I find so much solace and inspiration in the natural world — flora & fauna, rivers, the moon and stars, the changing seasons — Montana is the perfect spot for me. I feel blessed here. I both find and make tangible beauty in this place, and I hope some of the happiness I feel in doing so will be contagious.