Those who know me well can attest to the notion that I love to be in my studio and love to share it with everyone. A perpetual entrepreneur, I have made and sold things as far back as I can remember. While my friends in high school were flipping hamburgers, I was in my basement making jewelry and selling it at a store in the mall.
Several generations of makers helped to establish the path for my creative life. My mother and great aunt’s love of art had a profound influence on the way I view the world. My mother taught me the joy of making something from nothing. Of course, nothing is a relative word. My favorite “nothings” are castoffs of others. I am drawn to their natural texture, wear, color, structure and history — they speak to me.
It is a thrill and a curse to see possibilities in EVERYTHING! — dried weeds, rusty road trash, crumpled packaging, cocktail napkins, ripped and worn clothing, broken utensils — little bits of anything sets my mind a whirl. I made a pair of earrings from two pencils that had authentically been used to the very end. I found the thought of what had been expressed from someone’s mind through those leads to be so intriguing that I had to save them and give them new life.
“Six Feet Apart” (left) and “Remember When” (right) necklace, brass, fine silver, sterling silver, sculpey, vintage model train figures.
Being a sentimental soul, memories inspire me, which is why I love collecting vintage items and incorporating them into new artful objects. Each piece is one of a kind and carefully constructed with a respect for the history and integrity of the components.
I recently made a series of narrative jewelry pieces during the quarantine of Covid-19 2020. They are made of vintage bits from my collection with brass, sterling and fine silver. They express what I hope will be only a fading memory of forced isolation. This scary time has made me so thankful that I have a creative passion and a cozy fully equipped studio.
I have worked many jobs in my adult life. After graduating from college with a degree in art education and crafts design, I started work as a substitute art teacher. I soon became aware that making art full time and connecting with the art community was a more satisfying path for me.
As a studio artist, I was a contemporary basket maker. I loved spending time outdoors gathering vines and scouring shops for beautiful yarns. Using yarn to wrap the coils and interweave them with the vines was a satisfying way to work with nature to create beautiful one-of-a-kind pieces. It was during this time of exhibiting at high-end craft and gallery shows that my daughters started school, and I started my career of working outside the home.
I spent eight rewarding years as the Executive Director of Peters Valley School of Craft, which was an experience I will treasure forever (www.petersvalley.org). This renowned craft education center did much to fuel my appreciation of all craft media and the people involved in the field. Here, I enjoyed meeting the most accomplished artists and experiencing their desire to share their craft with students from all over the world. During this time, we opened our bed and breakfast to Peters Valley students. This solidified my strong belief that sharing traditions and skills is an invaluable gift. I took advantage of the opportunity and arranged for every student in the local elementary school to make a pinch pot and have it fired in Peters Valley’s famed Anagama kiln. I sought opportunities to reach out to the local community by speaking to students in schools, making presentations to Rotary clubs, and opening slide presentations to the public. One of my favorite projects was the development of the Craftsmen at Work program, which featured six craftsmen demonstrating their work in an interactive assembly program in schools.
From there, I worked three years as the Executive Director of the County Arts and Heritage Council, where I was able to help foster the arts to a different community base. The next ten years, I worked as a grant writer and public relations coordinator for a local school district. There, I was able to bring art-related professional development workshops to teachers. Throughout all of those twenty-one years, I was creating art and buying and selling antiques.
In 2012, my husband and I opened our store, Fresh Pickins, selling fresh produce, coffee and local foods, antiques, and my artwork. It was so much fun to make, buy, and sell what we loved and share our interests and creative spirit with a diverse and loved customer base.
As the word retirement crept into our conversations and what it would mean to us, my husband and I decided to sell the business and embark on our next adventure — making things, working on our home, and reopening our bed and breakfast. This next phase means more concentrated time to create in my studio while engaging with guests and students.
“Find a place of your own. It is there you will discover yourself.”
I’m really “all over the place” when it comes to making, and I usually have several projects going at once. Combining materials can lead to great discoveries! I value the freedom to make a pendant from stones I collected in Cape May one day and combining vintage toys with paper clay the next. The configuration of my studio allows me to flow easily from one media to the other.
I work in two rooms on the second floor of our home filled with the artwork of others, tidbits from my childhood and objects that bring me joy. One room, a former sleeping porch with windows on three sides, has been a magical place for me to create for over 38 years. The natural light in this room is invigorating. I work with tools and small machinery in this room to create jewelry and assemblage. I recently took over an adjacent room, which I call Wits End. Here, I design and lay out pieces on a large table created by piling sets of drawers, which I topped with a smooth white worktop. My biggest challenge is keeping the surface clear! This room also contains my library, mementos and a showcase with pieces I have made and vintage items I’m preparing to sell. I store most of my tidbits and widgets in antique and repurposed cabinets and drawers, which give the spaces a comfortable warm feeling. When I enter these rooms, I come alive with ideas and inspiration, and the rest of the world fades into the background. I love my studio, and my family loves my studio! Good coffee, my music, and all my stuff — what a wonderful place to be!
I am intrigued by the process of turning an idea in my mind into a physical object. It’s like magic! It requires a vision, wonderment, desire, an understanding of materials and skill. How I, as an individual, put all that together will be a different result from someone else’s. It is very important to me that I make it my own and that my pieces are unique.
It is my hope that my work will brings others a smile and perhaps spark a happy memory. Just before COVID-19 locked us all in, I had reconnected with creative friends who share my passion for making. They “get it,” and they get me. We started meeting once a week at a gathering of stitchers at a local coffee shop. Until we can get together again in person, we chat, share, and encourage each other virtually. It is so invigorating to be with these women. Also, a relatively new favorite daily ritual is when my husband (an amazingly creative man) finishes his work and comes to the studio with cheese and a glass of wine for me. He said he would be glad to serve me if I provided a comfortable chair for him, which I gladly did. Here we discuss the day, reminisce, and make plans.
Full and creative life encompasses so many things. It’s all about balance and what is important to me, including a tidy house, coffee breaks with my husband, being with my grandsons, gathering with other creatives, and responding to impromptu get-togethers with my daughters.
I am thankful for and proud of the successes in my work and creative endeavors. I have been professionally recognized, won awards, and been published. But I feel that even if no other person sees my creations, that joy of the “I MADE that” feeling will always be enough.
Like most artists, I feel an almost physical need to create. This new stage of my life is one I have looked forward to for many years. And now, as I enter my studio, I am excited to create new work as I continue to revisit old skills and develop new ones. Now is the time to dig in and create with all that stuff that I swore I would use “someday.” Someday is now, and I’m having a ball!
Those who know me well can attest to the notion that I love to be in my studio and love to share it with everyone. A perpetual entrepreneur, I have made and sold things as far back as I can remember. While my friends in high school were flipping hamburgers, I was in my basement making jewelry and selling it at a store in the mall.
Several generations of makers helped to establish the path for my creative life. My mother and great aunt’s love of art had a profound influence on the way I view the world. My mother taught me the joy of making something from nothing. Of course, nothing is a relative word. My favorite “nothings” are castoffs of others. I am drawn to their natural texture, wear, color, structure and history — they speak to me.
It is a thrill and a curse to see possibilities in EVERYTHING! — dried weeds, rusty road trash, crumpled packaging, cocktail napkins, ripped and worn clothing, broken utensils — little bits of anything sets my mind a whirl. I made a pair of earrings from two pencils that had authentically been used to the very end. I found the thought of what had been expressed from someone’s mind through those leads to be so intriguing that I had to save them and give them new life.
“Six Feet Apart” (left) and “Remember When” (right) necklace, brass, fine silver, sterling silver, sculpey, vintage model train figures.
Being a sentimental soul, memories inspire me, which is why I love collecting vintage items and incorporating them into new artful objects. Each piece is one of a kind and carefully constructed with a respect for the history and integrity of the components.
I recently made a series of narrative jewelry pieces during the quarantine of Covid-19 2020. They are made of vintage bits from my collection with brass, sterling and fine silver. They express what I hope will be only a fading memory of forced isolation. This scary time has made me so thankful that I have a creative passion and a cozy fully equipped studio.
I have worked many jobs in my adult life. After graduating from college with a degree in art education and crafts design, I started work as a substitute art teacher. I soon became aware that making art full time and connecting with the art community was a more satisfying path for me.
As a studio artist, I was a contemporary basket maker. I loved spending time outdoors gathering vines and scouring shops for beautiful yarns. Using yarn to wrap the coils and interweave them with the vines was a satisfying way to work with nature to create beautiful one-of-a-kind pieces. It was during this time of exhibiting at high-end craft and gallery shows that my daughters started school, and I started my career of working outside the home.
I spent eight rewarding years as the Executive Director of Peters Valley School of Craft, which was an experience I will treasure forever (www.petersvalley.org). This renowned craft education center did much to fuel my appreciation of all craft media and the people involved in the field. Here, I enjoyed meeting the most accomplished artists and experiencing their desire to share their craft with students from all over the world. During this time, we opened our bed and breakfast to Peters Valley students. This solidified my strong belief that sharing traditions and skills is an invaluable gift. I took advantage of the opportunity and arranged for every student in the local elementary school to make a pinch pot and have it fired in Peters Valley’s famed Anagama kiln. I sought opportunities to reach out to the local community by speaking to students in schools, making presentations to Rotary clubs, and opening slide presentations to the public. One of my favorite projects was the development of the Craftsmen at Work program, which featured six craftsmen demonstrating their work in an interactive assembly program in schools.
From there, I worked three years as the Executive Director of the County Arts and Heritage Council, where I was able to help foster the arts to a different community base. The next ten years, I worked as a grant writer and public relations coordinator for a local school district. There, I was able to bring art-related professional development workshops to teachers. Throughout all of those twenty-one years, I was creating art and buying and selling antiques.
In 2012, my husband and I opened our store, Fresh Pickins, selling fresh produce, coffee and local foods, antiques, and my artwork. It was so much fun to make, buy, and sell what we loved and share our interests and creative spirit with a diverse and loved customer base.
As the word retirement crept into our conversations and what it would mean to us, my husband and I decided to sell the business and embark on our next adventure — making things, working on our home, and reopening our bed and breakfast. This next phase means more concentrated time to create in my studio while engaging with guests and students.
“Find a place of your own. It is there you will discover yourself.”
I’m really “all over the place” when it comes to making, and I usually have several projects going at once. Combining materials can lead to great discoveries! I value the freedom to make a pendant from stones I collected in Cape May one day and combining vintage toys with paper clay the next. The configuration of my studio allows me to flow easily from one media to the other.
I work in two rooms on the second floor of our home filled with the artwork of others, tidbits from my childhood and objects that bring me joy. One room, a former sleeping porch with windows on three sides, has been a magical place for me to create for over 38 years. The natural light in this room is invigorating. I work with tools and small machinery in this room to create jewelry and assemblage. I recently took over an adjacent room, which I call Wits End. Here, I design and lay out pieces on a large table created by piling sets of drawers, which I topped with a smooth white worktop. My biggest challenge is keeping the surface clear! This room also contains my library, mementos and a showcase with pieces I have made and vintage items I’m preparing to sell. I store most of my tidbits and widgets in antique and repurposed cabinets and drawers, which give the spaces a comfortable warm feeling. When I enter these rooms, I come alive with ideas and inspiration, and the rest of the world fades into the background. I love my studio, and my family loves my studio! Good coffee, my music, and all my stuff — what a wonderful place to be!
I am intrigued by the process of turning an idea in my mind into a physical object. It’s like magic! It requires a vision, wonderment, desire, an understanding of materials and skill. How I, as an individual, put all that together will be a different result from someone else’s. It is very important to me that I make it my own and that my pieces are unique.
It is my hope that my work will brings others a smile and perhaps spark a happy memory. Just before COVID-19 locked us all in, I had reconnected with creative friends who share my passion for making. They “get it,” and they get me. We started meeting once a week at a gathering of stitchers at a local coffee shop. Until we can get together again in person, we chat, share, and encourage each other virtually. It is so invigorating to be with these women. Also, a relatively new favorite daily ritual is when my husband (an amazingly creative man) finishes his work and comes to the studio with cheese and a glass of wine for me. He said he would be glad to serve me if I provided a comfortable chair for him, which I gladly did. Here we discuss the day, reminisce, and make plans.
Full and creative life encompasses so many things. It’s all about balance and what is important to me, including a tidy house, coffee breaks with my husband, being with my grandsons, gathering with other creatives, and responding to impromptu get-togethers with my daughters.
I am thankful for and proud of the successes in my work and creative endeavors. I have been professionally recognized, won awards, and been published. But I feel that even if no other person sees my creations, that joy of the “I MADE that” feeling will always be enough.
Like most artists, I feel an almost physical need to create. This new stage of my life is one I have looked forward to for many years. And now, as I enter my studio, I am excited to create new work as I continue to revisit old skills and develop new ones. Now is the time to dig in and create with all that stuff that I swore I would use “someday.” Someday is now, and I’m having a ball!
Related Stories
Those who know me well can attest to the notion that I love to be in my studio and love to share it with everyone. A perpetual entrepreneur, I have made and sold things as far back as I can remember. While my friends in high school were flipping hamburgers, I was in my basement making jewelry and selling it at a store in the mall.
Several generations of makers helped to establish the path for my creative life. My mother and great aunt’s love of art had a profound influence on the way I view the world. My mother taught me the joy of making something from nothing. Of course, nothing is a relative word. My favorite “nothings” are castoffs of others. I am drawn to their natural texture, wear, color, structure and history — they speak to me.
It is a thrill and a curse to see possibilities in EVERYTHING! — dried weeds, rusty road trash, crumpled packaging, cocktail napkins, ripped and worn clothing, broken utensils — little bits of anything sets my mind a whirl. I made a pair of earrings from two pencils that had authentically been used to the very end. I found the thought of what had been expressed from someone’s mind through those leads to be so intriguing that I had to save them and give them new life.
“Six Feet Apart” (left) and “Remember When” (right) necklace, brass, fine silver, sterling silver, sculpey, vintage model train figures.
Being a sentimental soul, memories inspire me, which is why I love collecting vintage items and incorporating them into new artful objects. Each piece is one of a kind and carefully constructed with a respect for the history and integrity of the components.
I recently made a series of narrative jewelry pieces during the quarantine of Covid-19 2020. They are made of vintage bits from my collection with brass, sterling and fine silver. They express what I hope will be only a fading memory of forced isolation. This scary time has made me so thankful that I have a creative passion and a cozy fully equipped studio.
I have worked many jobs in my adult life. After graduating from college with a degree in art education and crafts design, I started work as a substitute art teacher. I soon became aware that making art full time and connecting with the art community was a more satisfying path for me.
As a studio artist, I was a contemporary basket maker. I loved spending time outdoors gathering vines and scouring shops for beautiful yarns. Using yarn to wrap the coils and interweave them with the vines was a satisfying way to work with nature to create beautiful one-of-a-kind pieces. It was during this time of exhibiting at high-end craft and gallery shows that my daughters started school, and I started my career of working outside the home.
I spent eight rewarding years as the Executive Director of Peters Valley School of Craft, which was an experience I will treasure forever (www.petersvalley.org). This renowned craft education center did much to fuel my appreciation of all craft media and the people involved in the field. Here, I enjoyed meeting the most accomplished artists and experiencing their desire to share their craft with students from all over the world. During this time, we opened our bed and breakfast to Peters Valley students. This solidified my strong belief that sharing traditions and skills is an invaluable gift. I took advantage of the opportunity and arranged for every student in the local elementary school to make a pinch pot and have it fired in Peters Valley’s famed Anagama kiln. I sought opportunities to reach out to the local community by speaking to students in schools, making presentations to Rotary clubs, and opening slide presentations to the public. One of my favorite projects was the development of the Craftsmen at Work program, which featured six craftsmen demonstrating their work in an interactive assembly program in schools.
From there, I worked three years as the Executive Director of the County Arts and Heritage Council, where I was able to help foster the arts to a different community base. The next ten years, I worked as a grant writer and public relations coordinator for a local school district. There, I was able to bring art-related professional development workshops to teachers. Throughout all of those twenty-one years, I was creating art and buying and selling antiques.
In 2012, my husband and I opened our store, Fresh Pickins, selling fresh produce, coffee and local foods, antiques, and my artwork. It was so much fun to make, buy, and sell what we loved and share our interests and creative spirit with a diverse and loved customer base.
As the word retirement crept into our conversations and what it would mean to us, my husband and I decided to sell the business and embark on our next adventure — making things, working on our home, and reopening our bed and breakfast. This next phase means more concentrated time to create in my studio while engaging with guests and students.
“Find a place of your own. It is there you will discover yourself.”
I’m really “all over the place” when it comes to making, and I usually have several projects going at once. Combining materials can lead to great discoveries! I value the freedom to make a pendant from stones I collected in Cape May one day and combining vintage toys with paper clay the next. The configuration of my studio allows me to flow easily from one media to the other.
I work in two rooms on the second floor of our home filled with the artwork of others, tidbits from my childhood and objects that bring me joy. One room, a former sleeping porch with windows on three sides, has been a magical place for me to create for over 38 years. The natural light in this room is invigorating. I work with tools and small machinery in this room to create jewelry and assemblage. I recently took over an adjacent room, which I call Wits End. Here, I design and lay out pieces on a large table created by piling sets of drawers, which I topped with a smooth white worktop. My biggest challenge is keeping the surface clear! This room also contains my library, mementos and a showcase with pieces I have made and vintage items I’m preparing to sell. I store most of my tidbits and widgets in antique and repurposed cabinets and drawers, which give the spaces a comfortable warm feeling. When I enter these rooms, I come alive with ideas and inspiration, and the rest of the world fades into the background. I love my studio, and my family loves my studio! Good coffee, my music, and all my stuff — what a wonderful place to be!
I am intrigued by the process of turning an idea in my mind into a physical object. It’s like magic! It requires a vision, wonderment, desire, an understanding of materials and skill. How I, as an individual, put all that together will be a different result from someone else’s. It is very important to me that I make it my own and that my pieces are unique.
It is my hope that my work will brings others a smile and perhaps spark a happy memory. Just before COVID-19 locked us all in, I had reconnected with creative friends who share my passion for making. They “get it,” and they get me. We started meeting once a week at a gathering of stitchers at a local coffee shop. Until we can get together again in person, we chat, share, and encourage each other virtually. It is so invigorating to be with these women. Also, a relatively new favorite daily ritual is when my husband (an amazingly creative man) finishes his work and comes to the studio with cheese and a glass of wine for me. He said he would be glad to serve me if I provided a comfortable chair for him, which I gladly did. Here we discuss the day, reminisce, and make plans.
Full and creative life encompasses so many things. It’s all about balance and what is important to me, including a tidy house, coffee breaks with my husband, being with my grandsons, gathering with other creatives, and responding to impromptu get-togethers with my daughters.
I am thankful for and proud of the successes in my work and creative endeavors. I have been professionally recognized, won awards, and been published. But I feel that even if no other person sees my creations, that joy of the “I MADE that” feeling will always be enough.
Like most artists, I feel an almost physical need to create. This new stage of my life is one I have looked forward to for many years. And now, as I enter my studio, I am excited to create new work as I continue to revisit old skills and develop new ones. Now is the time to dig in and create with all that stuff that I swore I would use “someday.” Someday is now, and I’m having a ball!
The Women Create Foundation is a catalyst for small but significant strides to empower women creators through grants that help bring projects to life and foster innovation.
