It’s been many months since my last post, and it’s hard to believe how far my work has come. I just recently finished my largest, most important piece to date: my first permanent public sculpture! It’s a “garden” of large scale metal mushrooms, installed at a new housing project in San Mateo, CA. It was the most challenging AND inspiring project of my career, and my entire life feels shifted from it. I finally feel like I could really focus on my sculpture as my main artistic focus, and let jewelry be a hobby. I have always been a sculptor more than a jeweler, and the fashion industry has never appealed to me enough to make me feel great about focusing on my jewelry. I *love* making jewelry- don’t get me wrong- but this commission inspired me and gave me renewed faith in my capabilities and the opportunities that could lie ahead of I really set my mind to this. I can’t keep up with all the new ideas in my head!

So check out the most recent piece in the “sculptures that grow” link on the sculpture page, and I’m adding some pages for the process of making the piece, as well as a photo journal about the place I worked at while making the piece. It was quite the adventure! I also kept a pretty in-depth blog during the process, detailing the trials and tribulations, as well as the metalsmithing processes I used… so if you are interested in my dorkiness and musings, check it out: www.shiraloa.blogspot.com