Transvesselite Series

The Transvesselite series is a physical representation of my queerness and how I use fashion as a signal to show my identity. Clothes and accessories have always been used to signal queerness, whether on purpose, like an earring in the right ear, or through force with a pink triangle. I know myself and other queer and trans people alter our clothes to our taste and body. This piece nods at that by making the sweater vest ceramic and adding real fabric patches to customize what is cemented as the standard. The choice of materials felt intuitive at first, but now I understand I am using textiles, wire, and ceramic to act as a trinity of my matriarchal lineage of my grandmother, mother, and myself. My grandmother, a seamstress, and mother, a jeweler, have had a great effect on who I am, a ceramicist, and how I represent myself and craft. Combining wire and textile patches into my ceramic work allows me to acknowledge the women before me and their skills in a way that is true to me and my identity.