a bit about me
Teaching
I enjoy teaching creative workshops for adults and children, to learn new skills and approaches to art that enable them to discover something new about Cornish heritage, connect with nature, with place and share these moments with others around them.
I am a trained educator and maker with over ten years experience and proud to be known as a patient and knowledgeable teacher of metal jewellery making and simple weaving techniques.
In 2012 I graduated from Loughborough University with a first class honours in 3D Design: New Practise and specialised in conceptual jewellery inspired by basketry and its connection with nature.
After completing my degree I achieved a Level 3 in adult education and training which have led me onto various roles in adult education. These include Jewellery Tutor, Project Manager, Learning Support Practitioner and Jewellery Mentor with organisations such as Workers' Educational Association, Cornwall College, Heritage Crafts Association, Cornwall Rural Education and Skills Trust and MAKE Southwest.
I also run small group jewellery workshops from my studio inside the historic Salt Cellar Workshops in Porthleven, Cornwall.
Community art projects
Working with the community has become a passion of mine and an area I wish to develop further.
The first seed was sown in 2014, when I was commissioned to create a kinetic seed sculpture for a community art festival in Sleaford, Lincolnshire called Zygote, which celebrated the town's historic seed industry.
In late 2016, a personal connection to the endangered craft of withy pots in the South West, a traditional form of crab/lobster pot, inspired me to develop a community art project called Jewelwithy and in 2024 Withy Lore in partnership with CIC Storylines.org.uk.
Both projects celebrate the craft and heritage of withy pot making. We have spent time recording stories with those involved in the craft and these are shared through film, photography and art within exhibition contexts.
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Artist
Since university, jewellery and art inspired by heritage crafts, particularly basketry, has continued to be in interest of mine.
I enjoy creating art work that helps to document and share stories of a traditional craft and its connection with nature. I do this by exploring and experimenting with craft techniques first hand and discovering its links with nature, traditions, place and communities. Interweaving these subjects to form art work that can be used as a thread to discover more about a subject. More recenty within an exhibition context inside galleries, museums and archives.
Through my work I hope to help document the beautiful connection people have with their heritage, often from a slower-paced bygone era, when people were in tune with their natural surroundings and materials used in craft.
Workshops with children and families
Aren't children amazing creatures! I feel blessed to have two wonderful boys I can now share my enthusiasm for art, nature and withy pots with!
They often help me when preparing ideas for their local primary school art club or family day workshops within the community.
I am also a trained Arts Award Adviser in Discover & Explore, Bronze and Silver, which enables me to deliver Arts Awards with children and young people, to explore the arts world, discover their potential as artists and gain a recognised qualification along the way.