Promise Worn is a cast of my former husband’s left hand, created using handmade paper from recycled materials. The process was both intimate and intentional, embedding everyday materials with personal memory and ecological awareness.

The muted palette of tans and browns, along with subtle tapa-inspired patterns, situates the work in Hawai‘i, where our life together unfolded. The ring finger is emphasized, speaking to a promise carried not only in gold, but in the gestures of a shared life — the hand that held, built, and endured.

This piece reflects on the quiet weight of vows kept over time, and how love persists through absence. It invites viewers to consider how memory is embodied in material and how personal stories can resonate with broader themes of connection, loss, and resilience.

Promise Worn is part of an ongoing exploration of how ecological, cultural, and emotional narratives intersect — how the handmade and the heartfelt can coexist in a single form.