studio notes #1
So, I've been circling this idea since the end of last year (2025)...
How can I address the grief I feel every time I see a headline about warming oceans, garbage patches, or insect population loss?
The first connection I made was mourning jewelry. I made a small series of pieces around that idea, mostly to see if it was something I could say in a few works or if it was a topic I wanted to spend more time with.
Turns out... it's definitely the second.
One of the first books I read was In Death Lamented by Sarah Nehama, which I absolutely loved. It sent me down a rabbit hole of historical mourning jewelry, symbolism, and materials. Since then I've started a mood binder with images, notes, and ideas, and I just picked up a new stack of books from the library.
For anyone curious what my research process looks like, as I read I usually make a few pages in my binder: a word bank, an idea bank, and a quote bank. Sometimes an idea ends up needing its own page entirely.I'll share some of those as they start to fill out a bit more.
Image info (you can click on the images to make them bigger)
image 1 - July reading stack
image 2 - mood binder with rings from in death lamented
image 3 - first sample - I fell in love with the navette setting used in several pieces shared in Nehama’s book so I am making this one using my 3d macrame technique and some black bags. I just added the back this morning, it is fused scraps of plastic grocery bags. The shape is indistinguishable from an eye shape so I am thinking of going in after I finish the macrame with these matte black beads to create the iris and pupil. I think I might turn it into a necklace if I like it once it’s done.
