Field Trip: LA Summer 2025

Now that I’ve been doing this for a minute or two (or 10 years), I’ve learned that twice a year, it’s absolutely necessary for my body, mind and soul to truly unplug for a week. To replenish, to inspire, to reset. That seems to be the recipe for keeping me and my overworking tendencies from achieving full burnout mode. Because as much as I truly love what I do, and find absolute joy in creating, jewelry work is also quite hard on the body, and producing art on demand can be quite… well, demanding. So, enter this recent trip to LA - a place I used to live, and where I still have enough dear friends around to make visits quite sweet. It’s an easy place for me to journey to for those reasons, but this particular trip was a really special one. One reason being that for the first time in 20 years since graduating, I visited my old college campus(es) at Claremont, and even met with my senior thesis advisor. It felt like I really revisited, reclaimed, and reintegrated some younger parts of myself. Heady, I know. Plus, throw in a visit to the clothing brand (Trovata) where my career in fashion really began, and it was just nostalgia central. I was also glad to get in some treks to the beach in Orange County, time at my friends’ new gallery in Silver Lake (check out Tetrapod if you’re in the area), and a trip to the Huntington Library and Gardens, along with quality time with old friends. It really was a golden egg of a trip. Come follow along my journey in photos…

Driving around Silver Lake in Symantha’s convertible might just be the most iconic LA thing ever

Echo Park Lake and "Nuestra Reina de Los Angeles.” I offered her some prayers, and I think she may have heard me.

Visiting old haunts, including my college campus(es)… I went to Scripps College before transferring across the street to Claremont McKenna College, and then attending Claremont Graduate’s Drucker School for my MBA. This was a total blast from the past.

My first dorm room, freshman year at Scripps.

Murals by Mexican artist Alfredo Ramos Martinez on the Scripps campus

From the Scripps sanctuary

A new addition to the Claremont McKenna College campus… quite surreal!

Glass block art at Claremont McKenna

James Turrell’s “Dividing the Light” installation at Pomona College (another school on the larger Claremont campus)

A beautiful panorama of the Huntington Library and Gardens

Take a seat

A Robert Rauschenberg at the Huntington

Henry Moore reclining figure at the Huntington

Agnes Pelton at the Huntington. One of my favorites.

No CA trip is complete without getting some requisite vitamin sea

Beach textures abound in Corona Del Mar

Visiting the offices and flagship store of Trovata in Newport Beach… my first job in fashion while I was still in school at Claremont. Shout out to Tamara for letting me drag her out of our way to see it ;)

Fellow jeweler Anne Gangel and her dog Beauty in Newport Beach

Lil spiral buddy in the tidepool

Spirit reset trip complete.

Field Trip: NYC

NYC in the summertime has its own whole soul to it… it’s a sweaty, grimy, rawness that’s not for the fair weather traveler. Only die hards remain when the temps get up past 90. One could argue it’s New York in its most authentic state: 2am halal on the street corner, buzzing traffic and the drips of air conditioner condensation falling on your head; fellow revelers everywhere, wearing wild ensembles that no one bats an eye at. A few weeks ago, I had the joy of experiencing this version of NYC, and I’m sharing tiny glimpses of my trip below. It was a work-and-pleasure combo, and as always, creative inspiration in spades. Enjoy!

40th birthday dinner for my oldest and dearest friend Lauren <3

Makeup free city style is a must in the heat… and a one-and-done necklace look with the Anchored Chain.

Takeaways from artist Jenny Holzer at the Whitney Biennial, courtesy of my friend Bonnie Gregory

Stunning metalwork on a doorway

I highly recommend an evening at Company XIV in Bushwick

A scene from Company XIV’s burlesque show “Queen of Hearts”

More stunning burlesque at Company XIV… take note of the mermaid theme…

Dressed up for a night out. Wearing the Soft Body Venus Necklace, and Helix Hoops

Visiting chain vendors… stay tuned for what I found for fall ;)

Pride month in NYC… turns out this heart was designed by none other than Denver’s own Koko Bayer

If you can’t tell by the looks on our faces, we were pretty delighted to discover that Judd Apatow was the surprise headliner at the Comedy Cellar the evening we went

Daily goods, from front going clockwise: The Protective Eye Y Necklace, Anchored Chain, Portal Ring, Helix Hoops, Rollo Band, Linear Stud, Diamond Mini Orb Stud, and Conjunct Cigar Band.

Field Trip: Orisons

Marguerite Humeau’s wind flute, a part of the larger Orisons earthwork installation, with the Sangre de Cristo mountains and the Great Sand Dunes as a backdrop.

If you’ve ever spent time in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, then you know what I speak of when I say there is magic there. I’m not alone in believing it’s some kind of an energetic portal. As the largest alpine valley in the world, it’s also an incredible destination for natural beauty, and bountiful hot springs to soak your weary soul in too. So perhaps it’s no coincidence that artists over the decades have descended upon this valley, as a place to create and to find inspiration from the land. French sculptor Marguerite Humeau is one such artist, who, with the help of Black Cube Nomadic Museum and land offered from Jones Farms Organics, recently installed the largest earth-based work ever created by a female artist. Covering 160 acres of unproductive farmland, Orisons is comprised of 84 kinetic and interactive sculptures that pay homage to a land that is rapidly undergoing desertification - a bellwether of sorts for the rest of our climate change-plagued world. “Orisons means prayer,” states Humeau, but “it also sounds like ‘oree’ in French, which means ‘the cusp, the edge, the periphery.’ Orisons is about resilience, transience, life and death. Life as a gust of wind, the fragility of our existences.”

The repurposed theater marquee in Saguache, Colorado

I had the privilege of joining some friends for the opening of Orisons, and immediately felt the gravity of what her work was speaking to, as someone who also owns a generations-old farming business that’s been impacted by climate change (yep, that’s my other hustle folks). Along the way we also managed to dip in at our favorite of the valley’s hot springs, Valley View, made new friends in the town of Saguache, and connected with some other resident artists in the town of Center. All in all a pretty special trip, hence the need to document it for you here.

The VIEW from Valley View hot springs at sunset.

Taking in Humeau’s work is definitely something that will require another trip back in order to process everything; there is a complex framework of interrelated mythologies, ecologies, and imaginings at play here. Take, for instance, the highly-intentional siting of the sculptures, which pay tribute to different humans and animals who lived and died there - an attempt, the artist says, “to reconnect every form of life that has lived on it, is living on it, or will live on it in the future” (as divinated by the clairvoyant geomancers that Humeau brought on for the project, no less). Or there are the wind flutes that play the notes of the sandhill cranes who migrate to the valley each year - birds whose migratory patterns have been changing as of late. Heart-like shapes are also a recurring theme in the works, but don’t mistake those for the generic valentine variety - they’re actually a nod to the shape of a local medicinal plant seed, as well as an abstracted take on a sandhill crane’s face. There’s a lot there, but at the same time a palpable sense of peace on the land too. Humeau describes her work, in part, as an “attempt to perform acupuncture at the scale of the 160 acres of fallow circle.” In this sense, she considers the land itself as an artwork, and herself as a humble host whose role “was maybe to simply give it credit for who it is as an entity, celebrate it, elevate it, and care for it.” Humble, yet inspiring, to say the least.

Adam next to one of 84 sculptures by Marguerite Humeau. This one she described as wearing “earrings.”

Special thanks goes to Adam Gildar for playing tour guide (and for being an early catalyst of the whole project), to Max Gibson for hosting us, to Jones Farms Organics for allowing us on their land, and to the Frontier Drive Inn for the lovely opening reception. I will be back.

Talisman and Friends Are Mexico City Bound with Carla Fernandez

The Carla Fernandez flagship store in Colonia Juarez, CDMX. Image via Conde Nast Traveler.

Join Talisman Fine Jewelry and friends Animal Handmade, Salihah Moore, Young in the Mountains and Mario Zoots as we travel south of the border, for an extra special pop-up shop at the Carla Fernandez flagship store in Mexico City! Happening November 18-20 here.

Carla Fernandez flagship boutique on Calle Marsella in CDMX. Image courtesy of the designer.

As a longtime fan of Carla Fernandez’s work in fashion, including not only her incredible handmade garments, but also her forward-thinking ideas for the industry, memorialized in her Manifesto of Fashion as Resistance, I couldn’t be more thrilled.

So how did this opportunity come about? Thanks to the Denver Art Museum’s recent exhibit and my dear friend Jane Burke, a curator there, I had the opportunity to meet and work with the inimitable designer during a trunk show that was held in conjunction with the exhibition opening in May. Carla, ever gracious and down to earth, was incredibly warm and welcoming, and invited Talisman to come do a trunk show at her shop. Little did she know how readily I’d jump on that offer ;) Plus, I figured, why not invite some other artist friends to join us, and turn the whole thing into a CDMX-meets-Denver pop-up celebration for the books… Once in a lifetime, right?

Designer Carla Fernandez. Photo via Culture Trip.

So mark your calendar, because this is one that is not to be missed. Truly, you’re all invited… friends, clients, family, and anyone else who is looking for a little adventure. Fun will undoubtedly be had by all. Plus, it’s a fabulous excuse to visit one of the best cities on earth with some like-minded design folk :)

Curious about the other designers attending?

Animal Handmade. Image via the designer.

Animal Handmade’s hand-stamped leather bags and goods incorporate mystical, mythological motifs that not only tell a story, but are also an unbelievably cool addition to any wardrobe

Works by Salihah Moore. Image via the designer.

Salihah Moore’s painstakingly hand-beaded jewelry and garments play with geometry and come in unexpected shapes, offering both a visual and sensory experience for the wearer

A diamond and turquoise ring by Young in the Mountains. Image via the designer.

Young in the Mountains makes hand-forged, stunning inlay rings, earrings, necklaces, and bracelets that nod to traditional artisans of the Southwest, yet are decidedly a look all their own

Mario Zoots installing his collage work. Image via the artist.

Artist Mario Zoots began his journey painting trains as a graffiti hooligan. These days he transforms images, colors and shapes into immersive collage works that are powerfully transportive.