About

Assemblage Jewelry, Collage and Sculpture

I have 2 etsy stores. www.lostandfoundobjects2.etsy.com is jewelry and www.lilmonsters.etsy.com is recycled plushies. Come on by and look. etsy is a great place!

I am so excited! My work was featured on a great blog!http://ourgreatgreenglobe.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/lost-and-found-objects2/
if you want to see it.


I also sew dolls from found stuff and make collage from my own handmade paper and found objects. More items can also be seen in my flickr - www.flickr.com/gp/21255859@N08/U4EUB9


In Lost & Found Objects I couple discarded bits from daily life and create new, funky, sometimes funny, jewelry. I get a charge out of using things overlooked and under appreciated by others. I have been working with recycled materials for over 20 years, at first because i had no money and then later (even though i still have no money) because that is all that interests me. I think i like the extra challenge of working with what is available and i congratulate myself on finding uses for things normally thrown away.


I get really excited about finding a resource that is abundant! and figuring out a good way to reuse it. I have been collecting bits of this and that, old junk drawer kind of stuff, broken things, shiny things, stuff I find on the street while walking. There is nothing like the patina of a partially rusted, partially shiny smashed bottle cap or piece of metal - run over by cars with the pavement texture ground into it. Yeah!! <:0)


The metal from soda pop cans are my current passion. All my items are well washed and sealed if need be Old knitted scarves and sweaters to make stuffed monsters is keeping my hands busy too.
In my neckpieces i combine lost keys, worn buttons, seashells, small toys, vintage costume jewelry and hardware with interesting semiprecious stone and glass beads - redeeming these objects for a new life. Hung on adjustable black rubber cords, it is my hope that the juxtaposition of the precious with the mundane will cause you the wearer to smile as much as it did me when I created it.


I studied Art at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, IL where I received a MFA in Fibers and Art History. For over a decade I have directed an arts program at Patchwork Central in inner city Evansville, IN. I enjoy making art with the children from the neighborhood, who often bring me cool items they find themselves in walking through our city’s streets. I like to feel I am helping to create a new generation of redeemers who will look at life in new creative ways.


I also have the fun of working with a women's craft cooperative in Honduras, Central America. These ladies make jewelry and hand made paper and products. I usually get to visit in August when my after school and summer programs are on break in Indiana.