It is Oklahoma’s landscape and rich natural history that keeps my affinity for this state strong. From the waving landscape of the Tallgrass Prairie to the oldest section of the Rocky Mountains, there is so much diversity to be found. The appreciation for the natural world here is also one that recognizes the beauty of creeks rather than oceans, hills rather than mountains ancient forests rather than ancient pyramids. It feels like a much more personal natural world, one that has to be experienced rather than observed. 

My appreciation for this beauty obviously works its way into the jewelry pieces I make and I love making these small homages by infusing the sterling silver, copper or gold with textures and images from our beautiful state. The sterling silver bracelet on the top of the stack is a ridge line of the Ouachita Mountains, an area I love to hike and climb with my family. The second cuff is a bison cut out of copper and layered on silver, and the bottom cuff on the rose rock is  a tiny sterling silver cuff for a newborn baby whose family is not from here, but who will grow up knowing Oklahoma as home and will have to find the particularities of this region that make it home to them.

As humans we search for a sense of place, a resonance with what makes a place home. For me, that sense most often comes through in the landscape, the grasses, the bison and birds of Oklahoma.