NWT Arts

I am a beadworker, mainly focusing on making earrings. Most of my designs are of modern taste, with neutral tones like white, beige and black. Besides beads, I also use porcupine quills, antlers, caribou tufting, shells, hide, granny hankies, gemstones and birchbark in my pieces.

I love to work with Charlotte cut beads and 24-karat or sterling silver platted beads. I use gemstones or glass beads for edgings. I especially enjoy using antlers as centre pieces, as well as clay and resins cabochons made by other Indigenous artists. I love to include caribou antlers, because they’re an important element of my culture that I love to represent in my work.

I usually make big statement pieces, but I also make simple and elegant pieces that can be worn regularly. As much as I love creating statement earrings, I want to make less cost-prohibitive pieces too. I want Indigenous people to have access to their culture, and beaded jewelry is a part of that. Not that long ago, we weren’t able to practice traditions like these, so I want to make sure my beadwork is accessible to everyone.

In 2018, as a part of my program while studying to become a social worker, an Elder was invited to teach us how to bead. That’s how I learned the basics. I ended up completing my first pair of earrings in 2019. Although I’m mostly self-taught, I received a lot of support from other artists along the way. Shawna McLeod (@from.the.land.creations), Natasha Cochrane (@gombaade) and Marti Lys (@beadshidedesigns) were generous in sharing their knowledge.

My main inspiration is Inuvialuit culture. I didn’t get the chance to learn how to bead when I was growing up. Working with beads has helped me find my way back to myself and to my roots. My Aga was a really talented beader who made moccasins, parkas, and mitts for my family. She loved us very much, so it’s deeply meaningful that beading makes me feel connected to her in a way that I was never able to before she passed.

Creating art is like therapy to me, it’s something that I need. I believe that beadwork is medicine. I love to see what I can create, because even though I love to see my pieces worn by other people, this has been a very personal journey for me to undertake.

When you become an artist, taking risks is so important. A core value of mine is adventure, and part of adventure is risk-taking. That’s what led me to this, and it’s evolving into something that I am very excited about. Taking those risks brought me all the best things in my life, beading being one of them. Running a small business has been a dream come true but being real with myself and who I want to be and what I want to represent is a main goal for me, and that remains at the core of everything that I do.