The art of knitting and crocheting was passed down through generations of women in my family and has been an important part of my life since childhood. Great Grandmothers and Great Aunts on both sides of my family often used the skills to make garments or decorative elements for the home. My mother was the one who taught me when I was six years old. When I knit or crochet, it provides me with a strong sense of nostalgia and a connection to family. My work explores ideas of preservation, memory, and transformation in both a metaphorical sense and in a physical sense. Each piece begins with hand knit or crocheted fabric. I utilize a combination of deconstructed garment patterns and traditional stitches to explore form. The fiber is soaked in porcelain slip to imbed the material with clay. During the firing process the original fabric burns away and the porcelain solidifies, leaving behind a remnant or record of what was once there. The stitches, now preserved as clay, become the structure and texture of the new object. The pieces all go through some degree of stress, strain and trauma during firing, which causes folding, slumping, split seams and even collapse. I welcome these changes and view them as an important layer of the work.