Margie and I were going to have them done at a town jeweler across from the market plaza. But each time we set a date, something came up and she was unable to go. I began to think she was chickening out on me. Overanxious on April Fool's Day, I had a plan.

Do you remember your first pair of earrings?

The first tiny 14k gold studs were quickly stapled into my lobes. It was uneventful and didn't hurt at all, taking all of five minutes, if that long. Racing home, I showed my mom first, then skipped down the block to her house. After a minute or two, Margie lit up with a sly smile. She confidently mocked, Ha, ha, April Fools, Sonya! But when she touched my ear, she sunk back in her seat. Look who's laughing now.

Adorning the ear is an ancient tradition, trace beginnings chiefly as male ornamentation, popular in Western Asia. Assyrians and Egyptians used earrings to indicate affiliation to royalty. Hoops and pendants of gold and earthenware were molded by the ancient Persians, who added precious stones and gems to the mix.

The 1920's brought the invention of the clip-on earring and longer, heavy incarnations were the rage. In the 1950's, at-home ear piercings became increasingly common. With just a thin needle, alcohol, and a lot of gumption, my mother pierced her own ears. 

The vast variety of styles today - studs, hoops, chandeliers, dangles, bar bells, spikes, huggies, ear threads - incorporate a comparable range of materials from rubber and plastic to glass and leather. In many cultures, baby's lobes are pierced well before they can walk. Modern day individuals flow with any trend du jour, continually changing the rule book when deciding what, how and where they want to display earrings of choice.

Margie eventually had her ears pierced later that summer. I added my second set with Brenna's first just before her Holy Communion celebration, as she vowed to wear pearl studs with her dress. Curiously, that second time around for me was painful. As my earlobes turned fire engine red, though concealing the urgent throbs was a feat, I successfully managed to hold her hand reassuring her decision that day to sport her very first ear candy. xoxo-Sonya

Dresses are iconic. They sum up an era, reflect cultural attitude, become a signature. There is an invisible thread connecting creator and wearer, a soulful exchange, an understanding. Color, cut and components communicate what is unspoken.

Flanking either side of the entrance to a second floor gallery of the Montclair Art Museum, enclaves showcase vivid dresses in collages of paper, threading and grommets floating in a backdrop of bright Matisse Red. The patterns are in blue, reminiscent of West African plant-based indigo dyes. They appear layered, pattern upon pattern, weaving complexity of character and culture.

This is the ingenuity of mixed media artist Janet Taylor Pickett. And I am excited to broaden my fascination with paper dolls!

Matisse and American Art was my sole agenda on this visit to MAM, a first-time enlightened look at his profound influence on American artist works. Sixty pieces are on view, many aligned side by side including Max Weber, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Faith Ringgold, all echoing saturated unmixed color and bold simplification. It was a wonder to see the varied influences throughout, thoughtfully amassed, but discovery of this contemporary artist caught my undivided attention.

Pickett's collection began as Indigo Remnants, later changed to The Matisse Series, thus a perfect insertion for the concurrent show. This solo exhibit is the second time the artist has been featured at MAM. In 1997, More than One Way Home was Pickett's 25-year conspectus. Her work has been shown all over the world, and found permanent homes privately and in the public eye at the Newark Museum, Studio Museum in Harlem, and Schomburg Center in New York. She has clearly established her status as painter, mixed media, and collage artist. as well as professor. Her resume is impressive. Janet Taylor Pickett's signature dress template fashions a reflection of life's ongoing incarnations.

Within the flat-pattern stencil of her striking painted color and cut images, a creative genius perspective is broadcast, a complex weaving of multiple cultures, archetype, symbolism and emotional expression. Elements of Matisse's classic works commingle, as if channeled to certify a uniting of present with the past, his influence prominent.

I am driven by a love and profound respect for nature, things made from the hand and an ongoing exploration of transformation. My dresses become vessels filled with interwoven layers of personal iconographies that become universal, and that I believe allow us all to connect to our broader collective heritage. ~ Janet Taylor Pickett

Featured in The Matisse Series, Sixty Six Dresses: An Odyssey expands over two adjacent walls, a visual installation of work from 2014 - 2015. Attributing Pickett's age at the time of its creation, each silhouette uniquely conveys her personal biography, one dress at a time.

A semblance of identity, these dresses are deeply personal yet universal. Collages of ancestral and artistic past open a dialog with present viewers spoken in visual language. After all, isn't that the purpose of art? 

Matisse and American Art will be on view until June 18, 2017. Say yes to the dress... xoxo-Sonya

When I began creating jewelry, the elements combined came from something with a previous life - a tarnished choker, a single lost earring, notions from an antique estate. I would disassemble them with utmost care and salvage bits of chain, beads and charms, so when resurrected, the next incarnation could be original with my special touch. I developed Deux-coupage ® so that my craft would be unique, pairing pretty images with intricate reworked chain-links and beads. Like any artist, I always want to make more. So, I enrolled in class and began to learn lampworking. Now I have the ability to create one-of-a-kind glass beads replacing ones I used to buy. Colors are chosen to coordinate with the images and elements, and somehow I work magic one piece at a time.

Lampworking is melting glass in an open flame, thus the name flameworked glass. This method has been practiced in Murano, Italy since the 14th century. Beads are created on steel rods, or mandrels, that are coated in a special resist so the molten glass sticks to form a bead, but also once cooled can be removed. There are numerous sizes and shapes of mandrels. Wider diameter mandrels are used for donut-shaped beads, rings, and free-form pendants. 

Inspiration comes from different sources. When creating trend boards for Trend Spotlight, I collect current concepts from the runway for color and pattern. Many times, sketching ideas for necklaces in various assemblage are part of the initial process. Influences are also found in magazines and Pinterest. 

Mood boards serve as direction for selecting rods of soft glass for my bead work providing a general idea of what I will create. Sometimes, even though planning the finished look, the bead results are often a surprise, for the hot glass looks different in cooled completion. Many of the creations wind up being used for a style completely different than my original intention.

1000 Glass Beads, a bible of inspiration and technique, is a great resource with eye candy galore! When I want to try something new, browsing over several of the four hundred plus pages usually creates a spark. Some added details to the handiwork can be silver foil, enamel powder, tiny shards of broken glass, frit, and etching solution, done afterward for creating a matte surface on finished beads.