Mariko Kusumoto’s Sea Creatures necklace demonstrates the artist’s ability to use folding and molding techniques to create fantastical jewelry. Using translucent textiles and threads, Kusumoto aims to artfully adorn the body with a tidal pool of delicate marine animals. The multimedia artist trained as a painter and printmaker in Japan and San Francisco before relocating to Massachusetts and pivoting to metalwork. She created complex narrative boxes that included wearable components, before shifting to this body of work that features ethereal, sculptural jewelry with a translucency that gives it a sense of weightlessness.

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