In this life, I have been blessed to have had the opportunity to be close with three grandmothers, three great grandmothers, a great aunt, my mother and many other wonderful women in my family. All of them have always cared about how they presented and dressed themselves which has lead to a big collection of jewelry over the years. This project contains stories and histories from way before I was born to the present. By putting this work together, I mend their histories, styles, and love for jewelry that they’ve passed on to me to cherish and remember. This work was inspired by an artist I met at a local Peddlers Market who uses jewelry pieces to make forms of art within picture frames. Instead of making that purchase, I used an old wooden plate as the backdrop and attached each piece to it individually. To allow them to be flat, I had to alter the backs on a majority of them. After that, I spent a lot of time shifting everything around till I got my final design but even as I was securing them in like a puzzle piece, I’d see new shapes and configurations and kept changing it as I went.

“Jewelry has the power to be the one little thing that makes you feel unique.” -Elizabeth Taylor

“Jewelry...a non-verbal communication of style.” -Gem Hunt