I am a Fine Art Photographer, Jeweller, Teacher and aspiring Ceramicist based in Hertfordshire.
I have always been drawn to the Arts, making art and jewellery for as long as I can remember. I first started with card, sellotape and safety pins at primary school before moving onto polymer clay beaded necklaces, bracelets and earrings as a teenager. The only break I took from it was whilst I was at Norwich School of Art studying a Degree in Graphic Design and Photography from 1994-1997. When I graduated I used jewellery making as downtime from my work as a Photographer, exploring the use of semi-precious stones, glass beads and wire wrapping techniques.
I left the Commercial Photographic Industry in 2000 and focused my energy on Fine Art Photography, with travels to Europe, Africa and Australia before studying to become a teacher. I am now Head of Photography at Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge where I have been teaching for 17 years.
Whilst on a college Photography trip to Venice in 2004 I discovered Murano Glass which is where my love of glass was born, but it wasn't until 2010 that I came across silver clay; I had always been interested in exploring Silversmith techniques but had been put off by the equipment needed to get set up. Silver Clay seemed much more accessible, and it really is! I love that you can work pretty much anywhere, with a fairly simple and minimal space set up - I often work at the kitchen table!
I love teaching anything where you create with your hands and have been teaching ceramics and glass work at my college as part of our leisure style enrichment program, teaching without assessment is good fun because it allows you to really play; something we think is really important at college.
My work is predominately influenced by wildlife, flowers, plants, landscapes, seascapes, textures and patterns, and the play of light - basically anything natural! I'm now finding that my photography, jewellery, glass-work and ceramics interests interweave each other and have plans to explore that further in the future.