My work explores the intrinsic knowledge in traditional craft and its materials. Industrial practices over the last 200 years have served to divorce society from material, shifting our focus from craftsmanship and care to consumption and disposal. Thousands of years of skill and material intelligence have been stolen from us.  By working with raw materials through traditional hand processes, I work to both restore what has been lost and preserve it into the future.

In my studio practice, I use wool from rare Heritage Sheep to represent the relationship between industrial practices, material preservation, and craft education. Without material, craft would be lost; without craft, material would be lost. Industrial practices endanger both by requiring homogeny in material. Each breed of Heritage Sheep has distinctive wool qualities that are unsuitable for industrial production. Where industry requires homogeny, hand process allow the individual idiosyncrasies within both material and the processes to become a part of the work. My pieces explore the characteristics found in raw wool that are usually lost through mechanical processing, such as loft, crimp, curl, and sheen. I use structures and techniques to bring structure; often times using techniques to mimic the raw state of the wool.