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Delta View II, 2003
18 Karat Gold, Mokume Gane 22K/Sterling, Sterling Silver, Boulder Opal
1 3/4 x 2 3/8 x 1/4"
An inscription on the back of this piece reads, "Wrapped in the arms of the river, we move together heading home to the sea." --Nick Jans
Tundra, Sky and Wind IV, 1999
14 Karat Yellow and Pink Gold, Sterling Silver, Copper, Fossil Ivory, Spinel 2 x 2 1/2 x 1/2”
I used to walk out on the tundra, far enough so that I could not see the village, so that I could see no man-made thing, and then lie down on a hummock and look up at the sky. I could see 360 degrees in every direction. I felt like I was on top of the world, and grounded like I had never felt before. Wrapped in the sound of the wind, I had found the shelter of open space.
Mountain/River Twin Brooch Set, 2005
Sterling Silver, 14 Karat Yellow and Pink Gold, Fossil Ivory, Boulder Opal
2 3/4 x 1 1/16 x 1/2”
This fabricated piece was a commission for a woman who wanted to have a piece of mine that could function as two individual pieces which she and her daughter could each wear separately, and that could also be worn as a unit together.
I designed the piece as an aerial view of a river flowing between mountains when worn as a set, and which forms two mountain landscapes when worn individually. The two halves can also be stood upright as two small sculptures.
High Mountains in Full Moon II, 2005
Sterling Silver, 14 and 18 Karat Gold, Mokume Gane 22K/Sterling, Citrine, Sapphires, Diamond
1 5/8 x 1 5/8 x 1/4”
Bering Sea Moon on Water II, 1998
Sterling Silver, Fossil Ivory
1 3/8 x 3 x 3/8”
The first time I saw the Bering Sea was in Shishmaref in 1977. I had arrived there in falltime. The wind blew the dry brown grass as the temperatures began to fall. I would walk on the beach and watch the waves as they broke relentlessly on the shallow sandy coast. They came in multiples and broke on the shore one after another, in endless cycles. The water seemed so shallow that I could imagine the Bering Land Bridge only a few inches beneath the surface of the water. The clear blue water lined with white lines of foam seemed so compelling to me it was all I could do to keep myself from walking right into the sea.
Headlands in Moonlight, 1998
Sterling Silver, Mokume Gane Copper/Sterling, Fossil Ivory
2 1/2 x 1 7/8 x 1/2”
Delta View: Tidelands Brooch IV, 2003
18 Karat Gold, Mokume Gane Copper/Sterling, Sterling Silver
1 3/4 x 1 1/4 x 3/16”
Tidelands…ocean meets coast…sea meets land…woman meets man. In the interconnectedness of all things, one cannot exist without the other. The sea, the woman-force, leaves an indelible mark on all she touches. Walk a beach anywhere on earth and you will see her tracks, whether it be the light whisper of the current, the rhythmic caress of the tide, or the earth-changing climax of the storm.
Tidelands Brooch II, 2000
Mokume Gane 22K/Sterling, Sterling Silver, 18Karat Gold, Sapphire, Diamond
2 3/16 x 7/8 x 1/2”
Tidelands Brooch V, 2003
Sterling Silver, 14 Karat Gold, Mokume Gane Copper/Sterling, Garnet, Sapphire
1 1/2 x 1 7/8 x 1/2”
This ongoing series represents the beauty and fascination I feel for the beaches and coastlines wherever I have lived, for the waves, the movement of the sand, the rocks, the tide pools, and the drift that washes up on the high tide line.
Birch Forest Necklace II, 2003
Sterling Silver, 18 Karat Gold, Chrysoprase, Diamond, Freshwater Pearls, Apatite Beads
2 x 2 5/8 x 1/4 x 18”
Birch Forest Brooch III, 2000
Sterling Silver, 18 Karat Gold, Chrysoprase, Emeralds
1 3/4 x 1 5/16 x 1/2”
Caribou Crossing, 1997
Sterling Silver, Antler, Fossil Bone
3 5/8 x 1 5/8 x 1/2”
This piece tells of both the value and irony of traditional behavior. The inscription on the side says, “Led by the web of memory.” The Inuit’s deep understanding of the animals’ behavior enables them to ensure a winter’s food supply, as the caribou are “led by a web of memory” to cross rivers and valleys at traditional places where the crossing is easy but they can be easily hunted. There is a warning here too, however, in the use of fossil bone, that extinction is right around the corner for both species if habitat is not protected.
Walking Towards Obscurity, 1997
Sterling Silver, Composite Stone Inlay
2 1/8 x 1 x 3/8"
An inscription on the back of this piece asks, “ Who will remember?’
Braiding Earth and Sky II, 2004
Sterling Silver, 22K/Sterling Bi-Metal, Dinosaur Bone
2 3/16 x 2 3/4 x 1/2”
Tuunraq, Keeper of the Game, 1997
Sterling Silver, Copper, Fur, Bowstring
3 x 3 3/4 x 3/4”
In Yup’ik cosmology every natural object and living thing has a human spirit, yua, (inua in Iñupiaq), plural yuit. This spirit has the ability of taking on a variety of physical forms. Usually a yua would reveal itself to a person in the form of a fleeting glimpse of a small human-like face on the back, breast or eye of a creature.
North Wind Mask, 1997
Sterling Silver, Copper, Bronze, Feathers, Bowstring
4 3/4 x 3 x 3/4”
In the masks, embedded in the carving of the supernatural being is a small human form representing the yua, the “thinking part” of the creature. Wooden appendages on masks may represent animal paws, wings, fins or kayak parts, but the face of the yua, like its hands, is always human. Songs of supplication were sung to the tuunrat and the yuit of fish and game in order to draw them into the human world. People referred to this singing as agayuliluteng, a term that later came to refer to prayer. During the dancing the carved face of the mask was intermittently raised up to reveal the face of the performer representing the “person” of the animal. This concept of shared personhood is fundamental to masking, and whether or not animals reveal their personhood, humans are admonished to treat them respectfully.
Fish Mask, 1998
Sterling Silver, Copper
2 3/4 x 2 1/4 x 5/8”
In Yup’ik culture, shamans routinely left the human world to interact with the spirits, or sent out their magical “guides” to do so. People believed that the use of masks in enactments of past spiritual encounters had the power to evoke them in the future. They created ritually powerful masks which represented the yuit, spirit people, of the animals, the totemic animals of individual hunters and the tuunrat, shaman’s spirit helpers.
Man-Woman Hollow Bead Earrings, 1997
14 Karat Gold, Sterling/22K Bi-Metal, Sterling Silver
2 1/4 x 1/2 x 1/4”
Carvings of a smiling man and a frowning woman are a recurring theme among the art of the Yup’ik Eskimo of Western Alaska. Bering Sea kayak hunters carried protective spirit images of smiling male and frowning female faces lashed inside their kayak cockpits.
The evidence is good that among all northern aboriginal hunting peoples, the hunter saw himself bound up in a sacred relationship with the animals he hunted. In the same way the hunter felt bound to the animals he hunted, he felt the contract incomplete and somehow even inappropriate if his wife was not part of it.
Smiling male and frowning female faces have another significance in Alaskan Eskimo iconography. Smiling faces were associated with land animals, and frowning faces with ocean animals. This dual nature of reality is everywhere represented in masks and symbolic images.
Ulu Brooch, 1999
14 Karat Yellow and White Gold, Sterling Silver, Fossil Ivory
2 1/8 x 2 1/8 x 1/2”
An extension of her hand, the ulu is a woman’s most useful tool, and in fact, symbolizes the Eskimo woman and her work. In traditional times, when a woman married she took her ulu and her lamp to her husband’s tent. When she died her ulu accompanied her to her place of burial.
Still in use in every household today, the ulu is used for every conceivable act of cutting, scraping or slitting. Ulu designs vary from region to region and most Eskimos can usually tell where an ulu is from by its shape.
For Marr’aq: Ulu Brooch III, 2003
14 Karat Gold, Sterling Silver, Mokume Gane Copper/Sterling, Fossil Ivory
1 5/8 x 2 x 1/2”
This piece is in honor of my friend Marr’aq who was tragically killed in Chefornak, where she lived. It is made in her memory and for my love and grief. It's an ulu, the woman's knife, with an ivory handle set in gold. The ivory has radiating lines representing her beauty and radiance. The ulu blade is textured to represent the tundra where she lived and which she loved. The pierced river and lake represent Dall Lake, the source of the river on which her village sits. The shape of the lake is an upside down heart, and the river flowing out of it looks as if the heart is bleeding. The blade edge of the knife has a piece of copper-silver mokume soldered to the edge. It represents water, everywhere present on the tundra, in the river, in the ocean, and from whence all her food came, food that she processed all her life with an ulu. It is also a reference to the fact that in Yup'ik iconography water animals are equated with the female. The ulu blade is set on the handle slightly off center, and the dulled edge of the blade with the water on its edge represent that her life was cut short.
Leaf and Raindrop Ulu, 2004
14 Karat Gold, Steel, Wood
4 3/8 x 4 3/4 x 7/8"
In addition to jewelry, I also make functional ulu knives from old hand saw blades with handles from a variety of materials such as hardwood or antler.
Her Partner Turned to Black Bear, 1999
Sterling/22K Bi-Metal, Sterling Silver
3 x 2 5/8 x 1/2”
This piece was inspired by a Dena'ina traditional story that I recorded in 1974 while doing my linguistic field work in Nondalton, Alaska.
This brooch depicts both an Inuit woman and a bear in contemplative pose, thoughts far away. Many northern myths describe women becoming transformed into bears. Why? In this environment the two species share the same space, the same food. Living on the tundra, the connection to the land is so strong that perhaps it was not so much a transformation but rather a flowing between states much like snowflakes and water…
The inscription on the back asks, “Are their thoughts really that different?”
Mother and Child II, 2004
Sterling Silver, Bronze
2 1/4 x 2 5/16 x 3/8”
The poet John Donne once wrote, “All mankind is one volume. When one man dies one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language. And every chapter must be so translated.” This is a rather good description of the Eskimo naming practice. Every baby born is given the name of a recently departed person. The child takes on not only the name, but also the relationship of his or her namesake. Many a young child is called “grandfather” by people older than he is.
It has been said that Eskimo children have the most harmonious upbringing in the world. In my experience, I have never seen children so well loved. I believe their strong self-esteem and powerful independent spirit as adults stems from this close and constant loving experienced as infants.
The inscription on the back of this piece says, “In the child is the elder reborn.”
Shard Ensemble, 1998
Sterling/22K Bi-Metal, Sterling Silver
1 13/16 x 1 7/8 x 1/4”, and 3/4 x 3/4 x 3/8”
Two Thousand years ago, prehistoric Eskimo and Aleut hunters donned their finest clothing and carried elaborately carved ivory hunting implements when they embarked in their kayaks to hunt. Among the most frequently decorated objects were the harpoon heads, foreshafts, socket pieces and the “winged object,” an intricately carved object placed at the extreme back end of the harpoon shaft, used as a counterweight. These tools were decorated with engraved lines, precise concentric circles and elegant curvilinear patterns. This rich and sophisticated style of carving is known as Old Bering Sea and is among the finest art ever produced by hunting peoples. It is unique in the art of the world, and, once known, is unmistakable.
Ivory Old Bering Sea Brooch, 2000
Sterling/22K Bi-Metal, Sterling Silver, 14 Karat Gold, Fossil Ivory
2 3/8 x 1 1/8 x 3/8”
Shard Necklace, 2000
Sterling/22K Bi-Metal, 14 and 18 Karat Gold, Sterling Silver
15/16 x 1/4 x 19”
Six ancient artifacts of the Old Bering Sea style inspired this necklace. Each section shows a fragment of a decorated ivory tool or hunting implement.
An inscription on the back of the two central sections reads, “Their place of worship was within clouds of wheeling swans.” --Barry Lopez.
Double Punuk Spirit Helper, 1998
Sterling Silver
2 3/4 x 7/8 x 5/16”
These amulet pieces are inspired by the beauty of the small ancient figurines found in many places in the Arctic and throughout the world. These figurines were made and used in many ancient cultures as symbols of spiritual power and fertility. Added to this is the concept of “helping spirits” in which a person, often a shaman, feels a union with a particular animal, that spirit becoming his helping spirit. Among hunting peoples, spirit helpers served as tangible links among the hunters, their prey and the spirit world.
To me, spirit helpers are both ancient and modern. They are small helpmates to give us courage and hope and to aid us in spiritual, emotional, or physical regeneration, healing, growth or serenity.
Red Sunset on Bering Sea, 1998
14 Karat Yellow and Pink Gold, Fossil Ivory, Sapphire
7/16 x 3/4 x 1”
Ocean Waves Rings, 1998
Mokume Gane 22K/Sterling, 14 Karat Gold
7 mm wide
Tundra Patterns Wedding Rings, 2001
(Gold liners), Mokume Gane 22K/Sterling, 14 Karat Gold
7.5 mm wide
River Ring, 2000
14 and 18 Karat Gold, Diamonds
7 mm wide
Tundra Patterns Wedding Rings II, 2000
(Sterling Liners) Mokume Gane 22K/Sterling, Sterling Silver, 14 Karat Gold
7.5 mm wide
Distant views