Maps Featured in the Storque

Thanks to Etsy for selecting my Custom made Map Pendants as the Etsy Find of the Day in the Storque today!

Three Rivers

Come find me this weekend Friday through Sunday in Downtown Pittsburgh at the Three Rivers Arts Festival. I am at Booth #67.

In Remembrance

Today, I completed my piece for the Anti-War Medals exhibit at the Shaw Contemporary Jewelry Gallery in Northeast Harbor, Maine.

The Anti-War Medals exhibition was first shown in November 2003 at Velvet da Vinci in San Francisco as a response to the War in Iraq. The exhibition then toured during 2004 and 2005, adding new pieces in each country where the show appeared. The expanded exhibition with 200 artists from 16 countries returned to Velvet da Vinci in November 2005, as a response to the continuing war and occupation in Iraq.

The exhibition revived in October 2007 at Thomas Mann Gallery I/O in New Orleans, with some of the original pieces and many new ones, will continue to travel for as long as there is interest.

The next stop is Northeast Harbor, Maine at Shaw Jewelry, with an opening date of July 17, 2008.

I wanted to create something that recognizes the lives lost during times of war, most of which are deaths of innocent civilians, as well as honor those who lost their lives in the service. This is such a potent subject, it is difficult to create a piece to represent my feelings about war in general and the current conflict. I sat on this for a few months trying to find the best way to portray these feelings as a war medal.

I researched the total casualties since the beginning of the Iraq war... which unfortunately are increasing each day that the war goes on... these are the total deaths by country as of June 5, 2008.

Sounds in the Studio

Besides the massive thunderstorms and rain beating on the roof of the warehouse, the sound of the keys clicking on my laptop as I am returning emails and ordering supplies, and the scanner doing it's scanning thing. Today is the business and paper work side of things.. hopefully later this afternoon I'll be back to hammers and fire. The noisy and more dangerous parts of my day! :)

I am currently listening to these albums on repeat.. they seem to fit my mood well this week...

Fionn Regan : The End of History



Death Cab for Cutie : Narrow Stairs


Rupa and the April Fishes : Extraordinary Rendition

New Retail Shop : Rare Device San Francisco

I am so pleased to bring the news today that I have a retail venue on the West Coast!

Check out Rare Device at 1845 Market Street in San Francisco. My custom map jewelry is also available for purchase on the Rare Device online shop.


It is quite an honor to be selling here amongst so many talented designers. It is a lovely store... where I had absolutely no will power last time I visited the city and picked up some amazing items for my home!

Including these beautiful prints by Camilla Engman. (one of these days I'll actually find the time to get them properly hung on my wall.)

Photos from Philadelphia

Here was the view out the front of my tent... as we were all wondering if the severe weather warning was accurate. Moments before the thunderstorm came and the decision was made to start packing up early.

The view out the back of my tent at Art Star Craft Bazaar... we were set up in the Great Plaza at Penn's Landing... right on the Delaware River. You can see the wind and rain starting to come through.With the extra time on Saturday, I met up with a college friend from CCAD.
Here we are exploring some ruins of an unidentified building in the woods near her neighborhood.

I have always loved all the brick, stone and iron work on all the historical houses in Philadelphia. After dinner, we stopped in a little shop called Delicious on the north side of Philly... that featured an array a beautifully hand crafted clothing and jewelry, but we also had a lot of fun playing with our reflections in the crazy fun house mirrors at the back of the shop.

The New Displays

Here are some images of the new displays I promised a couple weeks ago! ;)

Art Star - Philadelphia

Come see me today at Art Star Craft Bazaar at the Great Plaza at Penn's Landing....unfortunately the threat for severe weather and the thunderstorms had me and many others pack up early yesterday, today is forecast to be beautiful!

Check out some of the newest pieces! I'm really excited about this one.