Collection No. 24- Wicked + Holiday 2024

Some seasons are easy to revisit. This one isn't.

Between Falloween and the holidays in 2024, I lost two of my beloved pets, Mojo and Brady, within just three weeks of each other. It was a profoundly difficult time. Even now, I don't remember much about those weeks, and I honestly don't know how I managed to keep making these pieces. I don't want to pretend that everything was festive just because the designs were bright and beautiful. It wasn't.

And yet, here they are. The first Wicked movie inspired a world of Emerald City greens, intricate stained-glass effects, Elphaba bows, Glinda's pink shimmer, and jewelry full of fantasy and color. Around them came holiday designs: plaid holly bows, snowflake crystals, winter cardinals, Snoopy, Christmas kitties, and little seasonal details that were so familiar to me by then.

The collection even had a second chapter of holiday extras.. red pearl bows, tiny winter charms, Rudolph, Snoopy wreaths, and a few more nostalgic faces. Looking through these pieces now, I can recognize the techniques and ideas I'd worked so hard to develop over the years, even when the memories of making them aren't very clear.

I don't have an uplifting explanation for how I got through that time. I just know I did, and that these designs are part of the record. This chapter isn't about making grief look pretty. It's about remembering Mojo and Brady, acknowledging the season as it really was, and giving the work I made a place in the story of Olive + Arrow.