A little bit about me and what I make …..

I was born in England and grew up in New Zealand. In my early 20‘s I spent several years living in London then returned to NZ, completing a BA in Art History and English Literature at Auckland University before moving to Melbourne in 2000.  

My aesthetic sense and view of the world has definitely been shaped by growing up with both the English and New Zealand influences - cultural and geographical. 

I can’t pinpoint when my interest in jewellery started - I think it was always there. But I didn’t start making jewellery until shortly after I moved to Melbourne. I’ve now been making for over 18 years and completed the Advanced Diploma of Engineering Technology - Jewellery, at NMIT in 2012 - having studied part time over 5 years. 

I’m a collector  - some might say a hoarder - I fill my life with beautiful things. 

I love colour, detail, decoration, but am equally drawn to simplicity, calm, quiet. 

I’m inspired by sculpture and sculptural forms, by architecture and architectural details, but as much as anything I’m inspired by jewellery itself, by the materials and forms.  The monumentality of simple forms - regardless of scale. 

My work is about the integration of shape, form, line, and surface, the contours, proportions and scale, about interior vs exterior spaces, the play of light on the metal and the difference simple changes to surface treatment make to the feel or look of a piece, making the same pieces appear exceedingly delicate or very solid. 

It is about simplicity and subtlety - about allowing shapes and forms to speak for themselves without needing additional decoration and detail.

I also really enjoy playing with scale  - creating the same pieces or components in different sizes and building up large complex works by combining the same relatively simple elements en masse.

In these larger works the lack of colour and the surface finish make the work feel calm and simple in a way that is at odds with the complexity of the construction. 

I imagined these pieces being worn in quite subtle ways - the white to be worn on white and the black on black. 

It’s about place. And the ways places feel.
When you’re there and when you’re not there but they are still with you, in you.
It’s about the space and the light, the colours, the shapes, the details, the textures.
It’s about how you become who you are through all the places you spend time, that are significant to you
About the layers and layers. The influences, the filters you see things through. The perspectives and prejudices and ways of seeing.
The way you feel standing in a place. The way you feel when you think about a place. The way you feel when something reminds you of a place. The way you see a place, experience a place. How places become part of you and you never leave them behind.
It’s not about where I am but where I’m not.
Not all of it can be defined - or articulated.

..... and sometimes it’s not about place. Sometimes it’s not ‘about’ anything at all.

Sometimes it’s just abstract, shapes and forms that I like, that work for me, that resonate without necessarily evoking anything in particular.

And sometimes it’s just jewellery. A pair of earrings, a necklace, no more or less than that. Just shapes and colours that I think will look nice or that I would choose to wear.