I made this piece while on our bicycle trip around the USA and Mexico. As we cycled through Baja, I started making the purple flowers - somehow inspired by all the cactus surrounding me. The green parts came later - once we were in the eastern USA.

I love the way this necklace turned out - all dangling and free-flowing!! It has a wonderful feel to it! The centerpiece is pure silver - molded from a branch from a tree in my front yard!!

I picked up a set of stone carvings when we were in Vietnam way back in the year 2000 and fell in love with the delightful faces on them. Once I figured out how to replicate carvings in silver with PMC, this man was one of the first I did.

The Chin tribe in Burma (Myanmar) is known for their “Chin Stones” – wonderful beads made of petrified wood and etched with some kind of acid or some such thing. In many ways these beads remind me of Tibetan Dzi beads, but on a much smaller scale. I have chosen beads from around the world to highlight them – ebony from Kenya, stone frogs from Taiwan (did you know that the frog is a good luck symbol to the aboriginal Taiwanese people?), bone from Egypt, and more…

This incredible silver beads are the typical style from the Argoba region in Ethiopia. They are not made any more, and are quite difficult to find.

This incredible necklace is big and bold - definitely makes a statement! The antique silver beads are all signed by the silversmith. The copal beads are big and beautiful.

I created this piece for a beaders' challenge called "Hidden in Plain Sight. The fish holds a delightlful secret deep within.