Founded in 2006, Annalise Designs jewelry is inspired by my captivation with elements of nature and the intricacies of material objects.

Initially, my jewelry designs featured combinations of beads which reflected the vast color palette of my upbringing in the Laurentian Mountains in Quebec, Canada. Wanting to expand my jewelry making skills, I began metal smithing and my work is now informed by my expanding creative options.

Upon unearthing a tree root, enmeshed with fungi and sprawling in labyrinthine patterns, I was compelled to fashion the Filaments Collection. These pieces of jewelry reflect the complex world of the arborial and our

interconnectedness with nature’s ecosystems.

The significance of my “found object” was recently emphasized by reading Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees, where the author explores how the fungi's thin filaments transmit signals from one tree to the next, helping trees communicate information to one another. Learning about the vital relevance of the root systems further emphasized my fascination with what at first glance was simply a beautiful found object; I wanted to honor the complexity of the trees and forests with the creation of the Filaments jewelry collection.

As a life long collector of found objects, I seek the arresting forms and color combinations of idiosyncratic objects, whether natural, vintage or crafted. As an example, an assemblage of unique keys curated over years resulted in the Collage Collection. The unique visual and functional form of each key inspired my artistic vision, just as the unique formations in nature do.

Whether from the natural world or collections of unique found objects, Annalise Designs jewelry reflects my emotional connection to visual beauty and my appreciation for both the individual object as a unique form,

and the beauty of the collective.