DAILY METAL INTERVIEW

I was interviewed for Metal Magazine's blog Daily Metal and the interview is up now! I posted a couple of the questions below but you can read the whole interview HERE.
 

When did you start to express yourself through art?

I'm from what people would call an artsy family, and it goes back generations with painters, photographers, boat builders... My mom is an art teacher and artist and my dad is a self-taught metalworker, so I was incredibly lucky to be raised in an environment where creativity was wholly encouraged. My sister Alden and I always had access to plenty of art supplies as kids, but our dress-up box was unquestionably my favorite tool of expression- it probably still is!

What inspires you?

I'm continuously influenced by the materials around me, whether it's the metal mesh of a 1920s flapper bag, dead stock decorative banding from a metal fabrication company down in Rhode Island, an antique trinket found at a flea market, or the living finish on an old sheet of copper. Had I gone to school for jewelry design or metalwork I may have been required to sketch a piece on paper before making it, but being autodidactic means that I often design as I fabricate and find additional inspiration through trial and error. Now that I'm working with fine metals, and wanting to create pieces that are more easily replicable, I've been putting added thought into my designs before jumping right in - but I still allow my creative process to be intuitive. Additionally, I find that steady visual stimulation through Pinterest, fashion editorials, street style and travels with my sister always aid my creativity.