Fashion – Phoenix
REAL BUTTERFLY WING and NATURE-INSPIRED JEWELRY:
I am a completely self-taught artist. I was always interested in art and making things with my hands from a very young age. I never fully pursued it full-time though until I became a mom. I had more time on my hands then and I began researching different mediums that interested me. I already had a background in charcoal drawing, sketching, and oil painting. I decided to try basic jewelry making and really enjoyed it. When that was mastered, I went to wire and metal arts. I tried resin for awhile as well. I then moved to polymer clay, glass, and stained glass.
Due to working with a variety of materials, I have become a huge fan of mixed designs utilizing many different mediums. It is fun and exciting for me to bring to fruition something completely unique and watch raw materials come together into one unified design that is beautiful and dynamic.
Currently butterflies are my passion. When I was a child I used to have caterpillars that lived on a vine next to my house. Every year they would emerge from their cocoons as beautiful monarch butterflies. I would keep them as pets in my bedroom in glass jars and release them when they hatched into butterflies. They have remained my favorite insect ever since then. They symbolize rebirth, change, and hope for me.