Current body of work | Inheritance in Pieces
In my continuation of exploring and building my new series… “explores the complex and intertwined energies of Celtic women, connected through the unbroken thread of shared DNA and family legacy.” I’ve been placing my collage artwork into custom jewelry draws directly from the history of heirloom adornments as both ornament and survival.
For centuries, women in Europe and America were legally barred from owning property or earning wages of their own. Until the mid-19th century — when reforms such as the Married Women’s Property Acts slowly granted financial rights — jewelry often represented the only form of capital a woman could truly claim. Rings, lockets, brooches, and chains, gifted at marriage or passed down across generations, became portable wealth: treasures to wear, to safeguard, or to sell in moments of necessity.
By the Victorian era, heirloom and mourning jewelry carried layered symbolism — binding women to family lineage, memory, and tradition while quietly preserving their independence. These objects spoke in two voices at once: sentimental keepsake and economic lifeline.
In today’s world, I reinterpret that lineage through collage-infused jewelry, transforming heirloom symbolism into art that reflects choice rather than constraint. My pieces honor the long arc of women’s resourcefulness while reframing jewelry as a vessel of autonomy, creativity, and self-expression — bridging the timelines of past necessity with present-day empowerment.
