Most of us have mementoes lying around or packed away … and many haven’t a clue what to do with those precious pieces of life’s history.

Working closely with you, I can create a piece of contemporary art for your home -- or perhaps to give as a gift -- from those valuable pieces of your life’s history. Have you immediately thought of a trunk or drawer of old, worn quilts or hand-embroidered doilies and bureau scarves, now frayed or spotted yellow? Dresses saved by aunts or grandmothers? Deftly smocked or embroidered baby clothes of another era? A button box passed down for decade after decade? Vintage beads perhaps from your mother or grandmother's flapper days? Hand tatted lace still vibrant and whole?

An example:
A client entrusted me with a number of gowns her mother had worn when she sang with the big bands in the 1930s and ‘40s. My client wanted her mother and her sister, as well as herself, to have something in their homes that preserved these wonderful gowns and enhanced their homes artistically. So now I am designing and making for her three distinct pieces of art that contain not only pieces of the gowns, but also some of her mother’s jewelry as embellishments.

Another example:
The museum of the OregonTrail Interpretive Center in Oregon requested that I participate in an exhibit revolving around memories of life coming across the Oregon Trail in early settlement days. In this one, there were no souvenirs, and of course I did not participate in those events. However, as the quilt at top of this page shows, the imagination readily conjured up a 'memory' of two girls on the trail. You might have such a memory, of a very special event in your life or of a story handed down through the generations of your family, that you would like creatively translated into an artwork; I'd be delighted to work with you on such a project.

Another example:
In creating another doll, destined for a specific person's home, all sorts of tiny emblems, beads, shells, coral chunks, buttons, and other mementoes were incorporated -- from foreign coins collected in real world traveling, to small pins bought around the world, to a bird's feather. Seyyah Jannali of Experience Place became a sort of scrapbook of the client's extensive travels.

And yet another idea:
By incorporating symbolism as suggested by the client, sometimes along with objects, I have created various pendants and small display quilts for specific occasions. If you attend a lot of conferences, and are tired of those stick-on HELLO labels, perhaps you might like to have an "ID tag" designed especially for you? One that would also be a fashion accessory?