Reinvented Elegance Gallery

And, several days later ...

​Man, these ball gowns are such a pain! I (far right) am NOT loving life. (Note the one protruding sneaker, so rebellious!)

A Look (Way) Back in Time!

Ah, payback! At last it's my turn to pick the activity, and I (front left) quite gleefully choose one featuring rocks, sticks, pinecones, and a healthy injection of glue. 

​​​​​​​​​​The Reinvented Elegance Backstory ...

Hello, I am a jewelry, mosaic, and pressed flower artist and I've loved to make things all my life! As a young girl I vastly preferred concocting Dogwood berry-bejeweled mud pies, happily sun-baked on the aluminum slide in my side yard, to dressing up in the neighbor girls' annoying ball gowns.  As illustrated only too clearly in the photos at the bottom of this page, I quickly discovered it was a cruel fate to be the only nature-crafter in a neighborhood of would-be debutants!  To this day I love making things:  designing jewelry showcasing recycled, natural, and found elements and featuring wire, beads, resin, and crochet work; concocting mosaics from recycled tiles, broken dinnerware, marbles, river glass, and seashells; and roaming the fields of Alexandria to find flowers and leaves to press and create with.

A rare native Washingtonian, I currently live in the Rosemont neighborhood of Alexandria, VA, with my family. In my past life I was a reluctant but dedicated early riser (now I'm much more of a night owl) and I would get up early to gather local wildflowers and collect river glass and shells from the shores of the nearby Potomac River. I would also somehow manage to pry myself out of bed early on trash day to scour the surrounding city streets for a treasure trove of furniture, each piece begging to become a new family heirloom as it stoically awaited the trash truck. Early on, my joy in discovering new and fun ways to capture the beauty of nature quickly collided with my love of "reinventing" a wide array of ordinary/discarded objects. There were only so many ancient tables I could cart home before our own house was full to overflowing and, poof! ... Reinvented Elegance was born.

I am now in my 21st year of selling my art and have been honored to be a vendor at many juried markets and festivals in the DC area. As an artist, my goal is to make people smile by creating whimsical and colorful pieces that showcase nature's beauty and reinvent as many things as possible along the way. I love my job so much it (usually!) doesn't seem like work, and create each piece with great joy and enthusiasm. I hope everything I make reflects this happy karma. :)

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