Portable Sanctuaries

After forty years of searching for belonging, I’ve discovered that home isn’t a place or a group—it’s within myself.

I carried emptiness for so long, always waiting for someone’s validation, approval and acceptance, that I forgot what it was to be me.

The journey from self-loathing to self-awareness and then self-love hasn’t been a straight line, but a spiral, returning again and again to the same wounds until the pain became wisdom.

This realization flows through my fingers into the tokens I create.

Each small piece becomes a physical manifestation of acceptance, a tangible reminder that you can carry home with you wherever you go.

When I place them into gracious hands, I’m transforming my history of displacement into anchors for others who feel adrift.

They’re not just art— they’re portable sanctuaries saying: You belong to yourself first.

The most important love is the one you give yourself.

I make tokens because I know what it is to search for belonging.

I know the weight of difference.

I know how it feels to be forever outside the circle.

But I also know the liberation of finally drawing your own circle, and standing firmly at its center.