Holding the Coral Reef in Your Hands

Sometimes I walk along the beaches and I think about the absolute beauty of what is so hidden from us.  The world that we don't see if filled with fish and living coral as beautiful as one could only imagine.  I love to snorkel in the Caribbean, but also so lucky to be able to live near the beach.  I made this silk fiber bowl from 100 percent silk fiber and strengthened by a stabilizer.  I then was able to add small yarns and pieces of thread to the coral reef and also small little limpet shells that I gathered off the beaches of Barbados.  I can hold the memory of those days in my hands now and it takes me back to the beaches that I so love.

Hair

I am in a state of quandary about hair.  This is a bowl I made completely sewn and fabricated out of the hair of a alpaca.  I sewed and stabilized the hair and then embellished the bowl with golden threads.


  Hair is a dichotomy.  People adore and cherish it.  Many men without it feel not as attractive.   Women with long and lustrous locks of hair are valued in society,   Then if we were to find spare hair lying about on the corner of a room, we are disgusted and horrified.  I don't understand this.  How can one value hair and be so disgusted by it at the same time.  If we find a single hair in our food- we assume it has defiled the entire plate and insist it be thrown away.   I wanted to make a piece of art that would question this dichotomy of love and hate .  I hope I accomplished what I set out to do.