Cast Paper & Embroidery

In my series of cast paper sculptures with ornamental embroidery, I am exploring microorganisms, cell formation and division, and the elegant structure of DNA spirals. I begin by sculpting a form in clay. I then create a negative plaster mold of that form. I press sheets of handmade paper around the contours and into the crevices of the mother mold. The delicacy and ephemeral quality of the resulting amorphic paper forms mimic cell membranes and become the structure for intricate embroidery. I’m using the traditional feminine craft of embroidery to pay homage to matriarchal creation mythology, and the laborious, meticulous nature of needlework references the time and precision of the biological processes that generate life.