Glass, 1”x1”
Sometimes it’s important to keep it simple. No cuts, nothing fancy. And yet, even after I had found the right size tiles to fill a square bezel and decided to keep this one simple, I started to wander through a maze of color. After about 25 color combinations I reached back for the first one I had put together. Blue and green will never be too simple for me.
Ceramic, 1”x2”
Why not wear stripes with polka dots? Who says clothes and patterns have to be staid and somber? I remember a conversation with my grandmother many years ago when she was horrified by the idea of leopard-print bed sheets and insisted that sheets should only be pastel. I’ll continue to challenge the old rules when it comes to color, pattern and self-expression, and this pendant does the same. With polka-dots, checkerboard, stripes, a splash of orange, and an explosion of yellow and green, the piece, made from sections of two different dinner plates, somehow comes together into one cohesive whole where each pattern and color is welcome.
Glass and found objects, 1” diameter
It hasn’t been very many weeks since the first pendant exploring balance. Can you tell it’s important to my health? In this disarmingly simple pendant design, a bright blue triangle of glass balances above a lighter, more textured blue triangle, on a bead that looks like a metal rod. The rod is just barely off balance. The black glass that surrounds the blue triangles is both background and support, representing the systems and people that may be invisible at times, but keep things from being knocked off balance too often.
1″ x1″, Glass
Over the past 20 years or so the part of prevention that‘s about keeping people safer and healthier has moved from being something that’s whispered among practitioners to something that’s in the mainstream. With the widespread adoption of nasal narcan as a way to reverse opioid overdoses, people are talking openly about harm reduction in a way that they haven’t since condoms were promoted to quell the HIV epidemic. And it opens a window to think about harm reduction in many realms. When is it ‘my way or the highway’ and when can we find ways to meet people where they are, to help them explore and find their own ways to be healthier and safer? In this pendant the dark glass at the top represents a brick wall that’s as tough and unbreakable as addiction can seem. But as the rows of brick loosen, some of the dark bricks are replaced with lighter and brighter insets. These are safer practices, new ideas and windows of opportunity.