THE ARTIST
I grew up in the mountains and shrub steppe of the beautiful Methow Valley, in the foothills of the Eastern North Cascades: a land I will always know as home.
For the past twenty five years I have worked in health care as a licensed massage practitioner. This long-standing attraction to the healing arts began to morph into another form of tonic when I learned how to shape stones into talisman fourteen years ago. The endeavor initiated a passionate interest in the properties of stones and their potential to act as allies in our lives…and so I still find myself in the healing arts.
An abundant but simple life nourishes me~one where I am grounded as deeply as I can sink my feet into this beautiful Earth.
The companionship of family, friends, familiars and wild things warm and enrich my world.
When magic ensues, my path unwinds into foreign lands as the web of life is all connected.
THE CREATION PROCESS
What distinguishes my amulets is the fairly primitive creation process I employ, which sensitively reveals the various shapes and colors hidden within a raw rock. This process accentuates the beauty of stones as nature has made them. Beads and pendants unfold in a very hands-on organic fashion, without the use of templates or drill press, and are never altered with heat treatment, dyes, or polish.
The journey of creating a bead or pendant begins with raw rock: high grade material gathered from around the world, chosen for distinct features, integrity and quality. Before I work with them, I balance and cleanse the stones. This is a process I consider imperative for them to fully embody their natural attributes and vitality, so they might truly assist you. All minerals have been heavily mined, leaving what are essentially energetic holes in the planets grid. Thus, this cleansing process involves both balancing and recharging these minerals at their earthen source, thereby imbuing the final talisman with the energy they were originally intended to carry.
After they are re-balanced, diamond-coated equipment is used to carefully cut, drill, shape and smooth the selected pieces. This is accomplished under water immersion to protect the equipment and the artist’s health. Each bead and pendant is handled one at a time from start to finish. The slow and relatively primitive nature of my process of working with the stone does not allow for duplication or large quantity manufacturing. No two pieces are ever alike. In a world where quality and originality are often sacrificed to mass production, I am committed to offering jewelry that is truly unique. I find the appeal of rocks as an accessory multi-fold: their durability and beauty lend them to timelessness, and the specific medicine each stone contains offers healing.
MANITOU
…are the spirit beings of the Algonquin People of Native Americans, which are part of my heritage. This spirit is seen as an accessible entity. Everything has its own manitou~ every creature, every plant, every bit of earth. In the shamanistic traditions, the manitou are summoned as allies; such as the plant manitou for healing, the buffalo manitou for a good hunt, or a stone manitou as a benevolent talisman.