I had no mentors, no books, no Youtube videos, or instruction/information of any sort. The phrase “pietra dura mosaic” was not part of my vocabulary until ten years later. I simply reasoned that because I had made stained glass windows I could inlay stone in a similar fashion. I was making it up as I went along and by all accounts it was the project from hell. And so why, oh why, did I keep going?

Passion! Complete unadulterated passion. Every time I would get discouraged I would just look at my beautiful rocks and think of how I had to work with stone, how I had to make them into beautiful designs.

Twenty years later a lot has changed, but stone remains my obsession. In “Wings 5: Wing on the Wind” I used some of the most exquisite material I have ever hoarded (whoops, did I say hoarded? I mean purchased). The wings are cut from golden amphibolite, also known as grunerite. It is a very rare material from Western Australia with extraordinary chatoyant crystals that sparkle in every directions.