I'm a leather artisan from the Hudson River Valley, NY. I prefer the nightside aesthetic. A Victorian industrial atmosphere mixing ruffles and flouced petals with barbed wire and spikes. My longtime passion has been needle sculpting roses from recycled rubber inner tubes. Botanicals are a perfect subject for fabric manipulation techniques. Now I am crafting hand formed leather animals as well...using diverse Victorian techniques...such as smocking, trapunto, needle weaving, needle sculpture, knotting and cut-work kirigami. It is something of a hybrid between origami and soft sculpture doll making. The result hopefully holding a balance between the beautiful and the grotesque.