As a wildlife biologist, working in the natural world has taught me about the infinite variability of nature. During my PhD, I looked at deer habitat use in 39 places across the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Even though they were in the same region, each site had its own character, and over 4 years, I got to know each site intimately and regale my field technicians with stories of escapades and cool sites from each. I even gave each site its own nickname- Lord of The Rings Forest, The Land of 10,000 Falls (because we had to hike up and down a steep ravine which led to many wipeouts), The Bear Den site (where we came upon a mama bear and 3 cubs one year-eek!).
I loved being out in the Michigan woods in early spring. As the snow receded (and boy there was a lot of it!), beautiful spring ephemeral flowers were in bloom. So I’d go to my field sites and see carpets of trillium, trout lily, marsh marigold, and more. I have made many beaded floral arrangements of spring ephemerals.
As I learned about flower beading, I began to dabble in Huichol-inspired beadwork (from Mexico), where there’s a central beaded flower with some intricate fringes.
I also started experimenting with gemstones. I love the natural variability of stones, and how no two are identical. For example- in these Botswana Agates- the banding on each one is different, which is beautiful!
I tried wire-wrapping- that is a beautiful art! But I kept coming back to beads and had a limited idea of combining beads and gemstones. When I tried my hand at wire-wrapping, my work didn’t have a wow-factor, and I kept coming back to beads.
I’ve also learned to work with color palettes that make gemstones stand out, rather than competing with them. For darker gemstones, I might use brighter beads, and for brighter gemstones, I’ll use deeper tones. I have two favorite strategies for choosing color palettes. I’ll look on Pinterest and type in terms pertaining to the color of the gemstone (e.g. sunset for carnelian, forest for moss agate, autumn forest for tree agate, etc), OR to look at a gemstone with varied tones and look up color palettes that have those colors on Pinterest.
I’ve also had a long-time fascination with ancient cultures. Last summer, I had a chance to go to the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures at University of Chicago. They have an incredible exhibit there of Mesopotamian jewelry, which included a lot of carnelian and lapis. I’ve found myself continually coming back to those as a source of design inspiration, so you might notice a Mesopotamian vibe. In this piece, I love how the lapis chips are kind of free-form, which gives it kind of a neat ancient-inspired flavor.
Historically, gemstones have just been accents in a lot of my pieces, but in recent months, I’ve been experimenting with having stones as the star of the show, like in this Cleopatra necklace, where intricate beadwork compliments the stones, creating a signature style. With a diversity of color palettes and the unique look of each stone, each piece is going to be one-of-a-kind!
I’ve got a lot of sketches of new designs coming, featuring an array of gemstones, so stay tuned!
All the best,
Grace