Chani is a ceramic and textile artist. As the daughter of a Naval Aviator, Chani continued the family tradition and in 1989, enlisted in the navy. She served for five years on active duty as a Cryptologic Communications Operator (Technical Control) and another three as an Intelligence Specialist in the active reserves. Her first exposure to ceramics came through a Morale, Welfare, and Recreation center in Fort Davis, Panama where she divided her time between the photography darkroom and learning how to slip cast.  Chani’s textile focus is in dyeing silk and constructing massive whirling skirts as both conceptual and functional folk art. Her silks are vibrant studies in color and unplanned pattern achieved through her own signature process which she developed based on traditional Japanese Shibori techniques. Her recent silk work is focused on compositional explorations through eco-printing with found vegetation. Having lived in Japan for nearly a decade of her life, Chani has a long standing love affair with Japanese aesthetics and ceramic traditions. At present, while working on her Masters of Liberal and Arts and Sciences project at San Diego State, Chani is exploring the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi in conjunction with Buddhist ideas of transience and decay during the passage of time. This project entails rendering functional pottery (specifically tea bowls) useless though the use toxic metal washes which produce incredibly beautiful random colors that slowly disintegrate through oxidation.  Chani’s concurrent ceramic activities include technical work in locating, processing, and pit firing local clay.