Then I knew that I had finally found what I was looking for!  Finally I felt a sense of satisfaction that I could create exactly what I saw in my mind - small, beautiful, very personal objects of art, colored with glass, gemstones, pearls and metals, that, unlike most works of art, could be taken  with their owners and enjoyed wherever they went.

Much of my fascination with jewelry is the challenge of creating it.  Jewelry has a unique challenge not shared with many other art media - it must be able to be worn.  It is not enough for it to be beautiful, it must also be functional, otherwise its purpose is defeated.  So the artist must also become an engineer.  For me this is when the true challenge begins.  Does form follow function or does function follow form? My answer to this question is there must be a complete balance between the two in order for a piece to truly work.  Then I throw in the considerable complexities of working with glass and finally I feel that I have a project challenging enough to hold my interest through to completion.  As a result each new piece I design and make is exponentially more difficult and challenging than the last.

The inspiration behind most of my pieces comes from the color and form as found in the natural environment.  I have never found color more pure or lines so filled with grace, beauty and strength as I do when looking at the branches of a tree, the color of a flower, the pattern of a leaf or the depths of the Caribbean waters, to name a few.  Ever since I was little I have felt driven by the challenge to recreate this beauty.  >>