terraria

When I was a child, my parents involved me in the making of balanced terrariums; closed, self sustaining botanical worlds in large glass vessels. It was a big undertaking with damp green plants and fresh earth lying on newspaper on the living room floor. Music played. There were special tools my father had fashioned from hemostats and spoons, like metal fingers reaching down into the dirt filled containers. The results were magical. Those memories sparked the idea for another kind of terrarium. From my large collection of detritus I fashioned delicate sculptures from dried flower petals and bits of metal and wood, small singular worlds protected by glass. They are, for me, reminiscent of those wonderful projects I shared with my family and I make each one with them in mind.