Curious Botanicals: Hand-Felted Wearable Art Inspired by Nature

Curious Botanicals, Curious Maximalist, and the Joy of Wearing Art

Some artworks are meant to live on a wall. Others are meant to travel with us.

Over the past few months, alongside creating larger felt sculptures for upcoming exhibitions, I’ve found myself returning again and again to smaller forms. Hand-felted flowers, brooches, and wearable sculptures have become a way to explore many of the same ideas that appear throughout my studio practice: interconnectedness, curiosity, and our relationship with the natural world.

Each piece begins with loose wool fibers that are transformed through slow, tactile processes of wet felting, needle felting, and hand stitching. Layer by layer, soft fibers become sturdy sculptural forms. No molds, patterns, or shortcuts. Every piece develops its own character as I respond to the materials in front of me.

My Curious Botanicals collection is inspired by seed pods, blossoms, lichens, and the quiet architecture of plants. They’re designed to be worn as brooches or hair clips, inviting people to carry a small piece of fiber art into everyday life.

The Curious Maximalist collection explores a different side of my practice. Influenced by the joyful adornment of Mardi Gras, psychedelic color, vintage treasure hunting, and botanical forms, these wearable sculptures celebrate curiosity, playfulness, and the stories we choose to carry on our bodies. They sit somewhere between jewelry, sculpture, and tiny companions.

I love creating large installations, but there’s something especially meaningful about wearable art. A brooch becomes part of someone’s day. It travels, sparks conversations, and gathers its own memories long after it leaves the studio.

This weekend, people in Santa Fe will have two opportunities to experience these collections in person.

On Saturday, July 11, I’ll be celebrating the second anniversary of Collect Santa Fe with a selection of Curious Botanicals wearable flowers. The following day, Sunday, July 12, I’ll be participating in Mottainai Santa Fe’s second anniversary celebration with works from my Curious Maximalist collection, alongside local artists, vintage sellers, musicians, and food vendors.

If you’re nearby, I’d love to meet you.

If you’re reading from somewhere else, know that these events are part of a much larger season in the studio. I’ll be sharing new wearable works throughout the summer as I continue preparing for my upcoming solo exhibition, Curious Maximalist, opening this August at Little Bites Gallery in Santa Fe.

Whether we meet at a pop-up, through an exhibition, or here online, thank you for following along as these curious objects continue to find their way into the world.