Over time, ancestral forms of crafts appreciate in value, maturing into heirlooms that function as cultural currency and which later, as artifacts, serve as a documentation of the artist and her origins. My work engages this progression in a current cultural context.

I am developing a collection of contemporary heirlooms that will comprise my Dowry. The heirlooms re-imagine conventional handicrafts, rites of passage, and ceremonial adornments used to honor the fleeting apex of beauty, fertility or physical potential.

Traditionally exchanged for societal advancement through marriage, my Dowry will be sold or traded for professional gain.