Stories

I just wrote a post about my aunt and mentor Jessica Rose so it seemed right that this week I share a picture of her pliers. This is the tool she used to design and make jewelry, as well as to build her sculptures. The way that I work involves using a range of pliers and cutters so I'm always putting them down and picking them up, but she did everything with the one pair.  These nondescript pliers helped to create a whole lot of beauty. I have strong feelings about many of the tools I use. As a maker, these tools...

I've added some more new pieces to my website, including a collection of Jessica Rose chain earring designs that I've started making again. Click here to see the new work. _______________________________________________________________________________ I ended up designing jewelry thanks to my aunt Jessica In February 2000 I was planning a trip to New York City to see if I wanted to move there. I thought that if I liked the city I'd return to Michigan, where I'd been living, and save up for the move. Days before getting on the plane, my New Yorker artist aunt Jessica called to tell me that her assistant...

My aunt Jessica was my mother's half-sister. Jessica's mother was my grandfather Garth Williams' second wife, Dorothea Dessauer, known as Dolly.  Dolly came from an affluent Austrian Jewish family.  She and her brother were sent to England when they were teenagers to escape the rise of fascism. She didn't see her parents again — they were both killed in Auschwitz.  Dolly and Garth had met in London,  and were married in New York after the war. They had two daughters... ...my aunts Estyn (my namesake, also an artist) and Jessica, who was born in October 1950.  The family moved to Aspen. The...

I've been adding brand new designs to my website and I'll be adding more in the coming weeks. Click here to see the new work and check back often. _______________________________________________________________________________ So many drawings... A lifetime of making art adds up to a huge body of work. In the case of my grandfather, even just the published artwork is extensive. In writing these blogs I've come across books I've never read and been reminded of favorite illustrations that I had forgotten. Read more... I'm taking this year to research and write about my family, sharing what I find here and on...

When I talk about my aunts and uncles on my mother's side it gets confusing in about a second. My grandfather was married four times and had six children. And my grandmother also remarried and had a second family. So my mother, who is the eldest child, has four sisters, three brothers and a step-brother, and her youngest sister is nearly forty years younger. Like I said, confusing. Family reunion with Grandpapa Garth and all his daughters. From left: my aunt Jessica, my mother Fiona, my brother Garth, Grandpapa Garth, his wife Leticia, me, my aunt Bettina and her son Darren....