About the Artist

Since 1969, making jewelry has been my passion whether it was a pastime or my profession. The jewelry I make is composed of wrought and soldered metal elements as well as blown glass. The handmade glass beads I use are different sizes and shapes, but because they are so beautiful I feel I have to make designs that can deal with the fact that they are not all exactly the same. It is a never ending challenge to make attractive jewelry out of mismatched design elements. That is why no two pieces I make are exactly the same - the components are not exactly the same.

The materials I use are a variety of metals - sterling silver, brass and gold filled. They are bent by hand (by me) and hammered to flatten them (wrought). Sometimes I solder and cut and otherwise 'smith' the metal elements.

The beads are hand-blown glass produced by myself and other American glass artists. Although I make some of my glass, it is important to note, that glass craftsmen work in a molten media - glass: Jewelers work in other media such as metal. I am primarily a metal smith - a jewelry artist. It is unusual to find a blown-glass artist who also makes jewelry - they are two different media.

Studio assistants are hired a few times a year when demand exceeds my production capacity. They usually assist with the more mundane and repetitive tasks such as putting earrings on cards and marking prices.

Jewelry art has been my time profession or my pastime for 40 years. After all that time, I still can't wait until the next time I can 'roost' in my studio and design something new.