The series Black Beauty seeks to explore notions of materiality. Using materials that are inherently luxurious as well as laden with cultural and historic value, these pieces serve to explore and revel in the experience of the material itself. These pieces are consciously made from what I have come to think of as “bad boy materials”, materials that walk a controversial edge such as gold, exotic or rare woods and animal fur. These pieces play with a certain material’s ability to intoxicate and seduce the senses of the maker, the wearer and the viewer. This body of work seeks not only to explore the mystery of the materials themselves by using and exploiting their ability to captivate, but also provokes questions of how and if one erases boundaries in the pursuit of beauty.

Photography by Robert Diamante