About this work
"My first inspiration for this work came from visiting the Denver Art Museum, they had quite a display of ceremonial clothing that had a presence I could feel, I could not get it out of my mind. I set about to recreate some of this feeling, I desired to use materials that would allow me to distress and push the look in the direction I wanted. I like them to have a patina of age and an appearance that could tell a story. I invented the techniques used to create bead and leather work.
I mold the bead work in polymers, cast from real beads. The "leather" is many layers of heavy paper, wood glue, polymer and paint. The temperature and conditions have to be just right and it needs to dry slow."
~Janet Nelson