Unusual Embroidered Artwork, Jewelry and Dolls

My favorite childhood memories center on spending time with my great-grandmother, Mary Stieler. She taught me to sew, quilt and embroider, all while sharing amazing stories about her life. What she passed to me had been passed to her along a long line of women, inspiring in me a lifelong passion for creating.

Through my work I hope to capture the essence of my relationship with my grandmother while exploring and celebrating all women and girls; our relationships, our daily lives, and our traditions. I want to use my work to preserve and continue the traditions of both craft and story in a way that honors these lineages, but is decidedly modern; that is intensely personal, but accessible to all.

The bisque arms in my pieces have been excavated from old doll factories in Germany, adding another element to the story of my art. The antique, homespun linen and crocheted lace are beautifully textured and symbolic of the traditions inspiring me. I use these carefully selected antique and vintage materials because I love thinking about all the hands that have touched them as they made their way to me, pulling bits of our past into the present.