Description

Handmade ceramic beads, black stain, wire rope, crimps, brass washers

Sunbird is a monumental wall necklace composed entirely of hand-built stoneware beads, each one individually sculpted, slip-decorated, and fired to 1260°C before being threaded into a unified whole. The work draws its central image from the natural world — the characteristic open-mouthed gesture of a bird taking a berry — abstracted into the distinctive cutout forms that punctuate the piece. These negative spaces, carved into large disc-shaped beads, become the focal point: quiet, mask-like openings that give the work both weight and breath.

Each bead is coated in either a black or white clay slip applied by hand. The white barrel beads are hollow — carefully constructed and then slowly and deliberately decorated with a black clay slip, vertical lines drawn with patience and precision. The repetition itself becomes a meditative act, the resulting surface carrying both the directness of mark-making and the permanence of stone. That internal void gives the barrel beads a lightness that belies their scale, and hints at resonance,  the possibility of sound held within.

The necklace moves through a steady rhythm of matte black half-moon forms, large striped barrels, and boldly cut disc beads, building cadence from top to bottom. At the base, a single bead in chevron patterning shifts the tempo — the vitality of spirit and sound made visible in geometric line. Small brass fittings mark each join, adding warmth and the faint suggestion of ceremony.

Displayed on the wall at full length, Sunbird occupies space the way a living thing does — with presence, pattern, and a quiet song.