I found my way to Touchstones when I wanted to get back in touch with my hands. After working in the virtual realities of creating video art and social justice documentary films for many years, my hands longed to be put back to work making art you can touch, even art you can wear. So I began making jewelry as a meditation of sorts – for as I make Touchstones, I listen to literary books on tape. So the colors I choose, the stones I select are somehow attached to the beautiful language and expressive voices whispering human stories in my ears.

I think of my jewelry as a path winding through nature. It begins and grows and finds itself. There is no pre-ordained pattern. I wander and weave. Echoes of nature's randomness surface in my love of asymmetrical and hand-woven designs. I want the vibrancy of life and light and earth to shine through my Touchstones and every material that I use must have this element of earth and truth. The silvers and golds that I use to hold, clasp or weave are always high quality silvers (sterling and hill tribe) and high-carat gold plate or vermeil.

My favorite elements glisten with natural pastels, muted silvery palates, or richy earthy colors rather than primary colors. They are kinder to the eye. They are kinder to our souls and they sit well against the skin.

I search out unusual combinations of colors and textures: sparkling tourmaline and raw ambers; luminescent labradorite with keishi pearls; sultry rainbow obsidian together with the fiery orange of carnelian; translucent peruvian opals set next to slivers of turquoise.

I love pearls, in all their lustres and unusual shapes.
I love gemstones faceted with very fine veins and reticulations.
I love rich ambers and corals.
I love the smooth rainbows found on the inside of shells.
I love the density of turquoises and jades.

And if pearl is my favorite organic material, then blue flash labradorite may be my favorite stone, for no matter what shape the cut, it shimmers with subtle colors that are both like the earth and ocean deep sea.

I love working with stones and metals that, when they are placed side by side, or woven together, form a kind of a thought, or even a phrase. This is the way the beads and gems and pearls and stones that I use speak to me. And when combined with other metallic elements, the gemstones and pearls have a sort of conversation with one another.

They speak – and they even sing – as they mingle. Then these particular songs speak back to me as I add a dot of color here or place a chunk of light there.

Soon there are enough in a line to make meaning happen.

I hope the meaning speaks about the beauty and bounty of what the earth gives us; and the elements that are most irregular become the earth’s perfection.

And I hope you enjoy Touchstones as much as I enjoy creating them.