Sawdust & Stardust

“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.” ― Carl Sagan

For me, jewelry has always been a way to express the intangible. This collection is more personal than most. I lost my father 2 years ago. It took me time to move grief into creativity and this collection is an homage to the man that taught me to use my hands, to see beauty in the unexpected, and to curate an imaginative life.

Stan Reifel was a furniture designer, a woodworker, and an inventor. I grew up in the sawdust of his woodshop learning to turn scrap into something magical.

The shapes in this collection are more figural than I usually design. Hearts, stars, and dovetail joints have turned into flashes of sterling and bronze. Each of these motifs he used in his furniture, and for me expressions of love. The specific shapes are traces from ancient objects, Indian, Japanese, and Central Asian.

A man at once deeply of the earth, my father is now in the cosmos, a bit of stardust that guides my craft.