About My Work

My Process

In my work, I don’t use beads in the traditional decorative way, but as a way to build up and create a surface or imagined space. I use the beads as a kind of extremely small building material, and I do a lot of experimentation on how to make new kinds of forms and surfaces with them. I want to create the most elaborate surface possible. To do this, I often take a kind of a linear approach, filling up different areas with line after line, some lines curving, some interwoven, until the space is completely filled.

The patterns I make are improvised. I used to start by making a preliminary sketch of some sort although lately I never do that anymore. Now I typically jump in and start by improvising a pattern as I go. I do this because it’s a process that’s already so inherently controlled and obsessive I feel like some aspect needs to be left unsettled and left to chance as I go.

The most common question I get asked is “how long does it take to create a piece?” No matter what, beading is a painstakingly slow process. While larger pieces can take up to a year, smaller pieces like these can be completed in a couple months. Time is a central aspect of the work and “fast” is never really part of the picture. I choose this medium precisely because it’s not fast. When you’re not in a hurry, you’re in a very different kind of headspace than you’re in at other times, and as a result of that different mindset, you produce different results, that can hopefully be extraordinary, or at least you can hope for that, or strive for that as a goal.