love hate relationship

I have a completely irrational fear of bees. I cannot control myself if there is one in the slightest vacinity to me. I will scream and run. I can't help it.  When my sister and I were younger I remember these tiny little terrors getting caught in our hair. Thankfully my mom would always remove them.

Despite my disdain for bees, I like their imagery. This necklace below obviously isn't a very true reproduction, but the form inspired me. I was looking at a bottle of tequilla and the emblem was so appealing that I started to sketch variations of it.  This is my emblem, I have it as my Avatar for my Etsy site.  It was my main piece in my BFA Show show when graduating from Northern Arizona University.

etched sterling silver, lemon quartz and pearls

I photographed this piece on a bar stool in my apartment. My sister helped me arrange the chain by using a pair of tweezers and meticulously manipulated the pearls and silver.  It took longer than one would imagine to get the right feel and positioning of the chain, but she did a splendid job.

Here fishy, fishy, fishy...

I like fish, it's a bit of an obsession.  They are everywhere in my house, (tastefully of course).  These earrings are made from sterling silver and I used Nitric acid to etch in my design.  Simple, nothing too glamorous, but I like them anyways!

They are in my Etsy shop if you would like to see them.  Good day!

I have an absolute passion for intaglio thanks to Dave Williams at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.  He is absolutely amazing & truly inspiring. 

This intaglio/aquatint is of a snake charmer in Africa.  My dad is a photographer and this print was created from one of his photos.  The gentleman depicted invited my dad for tea after...and as my dad said, "How can you turn down tea with a man who charms black cobras?"  Unfortunately, there were...errrr...consequences from drinking the untreated water.  He still said it was worth it.

Anyways, the man and snake are true to the original photograph.  I embellished the image with the foliage, sky, plane and border.  I always like to add more and have a hard time limiting myself.  Maybe this is why intaglio is so appealing, you can always add more lines, stop out sections so they don't etch too deep and become too dark. There are so many layers to a print you don't even realize are there.  It is a true art that deserves a deep appreciation.

You may view this print on my etsy site.