While traveling in Northern Europe, I researched a number of artworks, including architectural elements, Memento Mori jewelry, and liturgical and secular masterworks. I studied in depth Medieval and Renaissance goldsmithing art objects such as commemorative chalices, trophies and reliquaries. These objects incorporate signs and symbols to communicate distinct belief systems about power, economic and social relationships. In my artwork, I utilize plant motifs such as flowers, pods, twigs, and branches to serve as symbols of transformation.

Physical aspects of historical ties are evident within my processes of holloware forming techniques of raising, chasing, and repoussé. I incorporate other materials within the work, such as fossils, bone, wood and coral that I use in their "as-found" state, building importance around them to convey preciousness. At times, I integrate mundane objects by modifying them so that they appear precious. Through these manipulations, non-precious materials escape the ordinary and are elevated to a message of integrity that contradicts their original reality.

An important consideration that drives my work is the environment of a jewelry form when not being worn. While remaining connected to the history of goldsmithing, I contemporize the communication through an exploration of the hybridity of object and wearable. I explore hierarchies within these objects by placing removable and wearable components within an amplified format--to offer a fluid exchange between sculpture, vessel, and jewelry. Although historically, jewelry elements were not incorporated into liturgical and secular objects, I find that similar vocabularies of preciousness and distinctiveness create interesting dialogues when combined.I hope that this work engages through its amalgamation of memory, object, and experience.