Tucked into a corner of the border city of Hereford is my little workshop, shaded by a rambling hawthorn. From the window I peer out onto a vista of ferns and a little greengage tree, watching the resident robin's disgruntled dance as the other creatures try to steal his worms.
The workshop is stacked to the roof with suitcases of ephemera, jars of buttons and drawers full of bits and bobs. If you look very closely you may even see bramble bees and bumble birds nestling in the nooks and crannies..........
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I graduated in 2000 from Hereford College of Art with a BA(hons) in Design Crafts.
Since graduating I have done numerous contemporary craft fairs, including Bovey Tracey, Origin, the Country Living Spring & Christmas Fairs and Hereford Contemporary Craft Fair. I regularly participate in local craft markets and exhibit in shops and galleries, locally and nationally.
From a very young age, I have compulsively collected found objects and ephemera, squirreling them away into jars and boxes. Enticed by the beauty of patina, that only comes with age and wear, I assemble these pieces into whimsical works of art.
Inspiration comes from fantastical fairy tales, nursery rhymes and the curiousness of the natural world. Often the creatures I make are pure figments of my imagination. I try to envisage the oddities that many Victorian explorers could have encountered on their voyages to different lands. These whimsies are then caged, named and categorized. A museum of my own fantasy.
My work uses many processes. Wire-working is a common factor in the majority of my pieces. I have a tendency to use iron or brass wire, each has their own nuances, which command when and how I utilize them. The processes I use are often dictated by the materials I am using. I bend, solder, hammer, drill then maybe solder a bit more.
As for designing, I collect images, from books and magazines, which I collage into reference books. I rarely put designs down on paper. Normally ideas formulate as I drift asleep or wake. Quite often I will have several pieces at different stages of production on the go, flitting back and forth until the right object finishes the piece.
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