ZapnZen is a place where we dance between intention and surrender. A place where intentional botanicals and expressive silks come together to support everyday well-being, calm, and joy. It’s about creating small, meaningful rituals that bring balance to the body, beauty to the outer self, and a bit of zing to life.
BOTANICALS
Purpose-driven plant-based organic blends crafted from carefully selected essential oils and natural extracts. Rooted in traditional plant wisdom and modern understanding, each formula is designed to support everyday wellness, protection, and restoration.
SILK
Natural silk, born from one of nature’s most delicate transformations, becomes wearable art shaped by softness, comfort, and expressive beauty. Like botanicals, it begins in nature and is refined into experience. In the dyeing process, color flows freely through the silk, creating watercolor-like forms in which the material and pigment respond to one another. I guide each piece, while silk and dye complete the final expression.
My studio doesn’t always have four walls. Sometimes inspiration waits outside, where rain, rocks, sunlight, and wind become collaborators. I don’t always paint on a perfectly flat table. Often, I carry my silk outdoors. Sometimes it rests on river stones. Sometimes a light rain joins me. The moisture softens the silk while the rocks leave their quiet impressions beneath the surface. Then I release watercolor onto the fabric—drops, splashes, and flicks of color that wander wherever the water leads them. I guide the process, but I never completely control it.
Nature often has the final brushstroke.
THE STORY BEHIND THE SCARF RINGS
Some ZapnZen silk pieces carry something extra: a vintage Native American ring, carefully selected to become part of the piece.
These rings are not simply decorative additions. They come from my long-standing appreciation of Native American jewelry and from years of purchasing pieces directly from artists for my native American art galleries. I know the history of the rings in my collection—the artist or source, where and when I acquired them, and what I paid.
When a particular ring finds its way onto a ZapnZen scarf, it is because the two belong together. The colors, stones, metalwork, and character of the ring become part of the silk’s story.
Each combination is intentionally curated. The scarf is new. The ring carries a history of its own. Together, they become something neither was before.
A LITTLE HISTORY
Long before ZapnZen, I opened my first art gallery in 1987, featuring Native American art and jewelry. Recently, I stumbled across an old newspaper clipping about the opening—with a photograph to prove I really was there.
Who was that girl? And what is that hairdo? Or is it a hairdon’t?
Outdoor Studio: A place to let nature join the process—where rain, wind, sunlight, rocks, leaves, and other elements become part of the design.
Indoor Studio: A multi-use creative space for creating botanical blends, painting silk, and sewing charity projects.
