Robert’s Garden – 2023 
Sterling Silver amulet set with lapis lazuli and amber, lapis lazuli, amber and glass beads
 
There is something so interesting to me about the amulet form. This piece is about my recent return to my roots as a metalsmith. As a very young artist of seven or eight, my parents had back to the land friends that were artists. They made their yurt-style home and planted a beautiful cottage garden on top of a mountain. Bob and Sue would have us over often. One day, when I was about seven, Bob gave me a small sculpture of a flower as a gift. It was at that moment that I knew I wanted to be an object maker. When he retired and moved to the Adirondack mountains, he and Sue planted a new cottage garden. On one visit I presented him with a sculpture, and he placed it in his garden. Bob passed away recently, followed in short order by Sue. My sculpture lives on entangled in the flowers. This necklace, part of my journey back to my craft, is in honor of Bob and Sue.