the heart of my creations
At the heart of my creations is a desire to preserve the most intimate moments of motherhood and transform them into something tangible- something you can hold, wear and pass down. A small piece of a transformative season, preserved long after it has passed.
meet the maker
My name is Callee. I am a mother, artist and storyteller. I believe in trusting our intuition, living in tune with nature and finding beauty in what is real and raw. I live in an Appalachian holler, raising wild children, tending to our land and creating heirlooms with my hands.
Wild Tellus began with my own breastfeeding journey. I will never forget those nights when my baby and I reached for each other's hands in the dark, while everyone else slept, both of us searching for home. As my milk dripped and my baby drank, I knew there was nothing more profound, nothing more meaningful than this. I wanted a way to honor this sacred bond between mother and child long after the season passed. And so it began...
i work with breastmilk, umbilical cord, ashes, hair and placenta - the sacred elements of life itself.
Each piece holds meaning, a story, a moment in time. I transform these deeply personal memories into heirlooms, preserving what is fleeting so it can be held onto forever.
i grew up without a mother
There was an ache in her absence and for a long time I felt alone. But over time, I found another kind of mother in Mother Earth. She met me in the trees, the wind, the grass beneath my feet. She became my teacher and my resting place.
She taught me how to listen, how to nurture, how to trust the cycles of birth, becoming and release. Reminding me that we are not separate from but deeply connected to nature. My relationship with the natural world became the foundation of who I am and a deep source of inspiration for the pieces I create.
And then I became a mother myself, and I was cracked open by a love I had never known. My entire being was transformed by the weight of my baby in my arms, their warmth against my skin, and the quiet nights spent nourishing them from my own body beneath the moon. Our bodies, each other's home.
Wild Tellus was born from that place. A devotion to the bond between mother and child and a desire to honor it by bringing together pieces of motherhood and pieces of Mother Earth.