“My work as a jewelry designer is strongly tied to my work as a puppet maker. I first learned to make marionettes in the Czech Republic (where my father is from) when I was 20. Immediately after I returned, I studied jewelry making at the Revere Academy in San Francisco. Since that time, I have worked in both of these areas. Each one lends ideas and forms to the other. Many of the techniques and materials I use in making my jewelry come from techniques or discoveries in the puppet-making process. Wood, paint, gold leaf, fabric and plastic are paired with traditional materials of gold, silver and gemstones. I do not attempt to hone my style into a narrowly focused body of work; it diverges. I understand my jewelry to be the exploration of isolated areas of a puppet. And the puppets benefit from these explorations as well. Recently, I have begun to explore the overlap between puppets and jewelry more deeply through smaller scale performance.”
