Artist Statement

The perfection of nature has always been one of my biggest influences – even as a child I was far more often found outside examining the tiny creatures scuttling through the dirt and grass than inside playing with dolls (or whatever else it is little girls are expected to do). After moving from the country to the city, that interest in plants and biology grew into a complete fascination and I started to look at things in a new way, more closely and with more of a connection to my own life.

It's no accident that the most beautiful part of a plant is usually its flower, the structure whose sole purpose is to attract in order to encourage and facilitate sex and reproduction. I feel that this is often the role of jewellery as well! While I appreciate the allure of the flower and utilize it in my work, I also try to peel back this layer, revealing the secret beauty and mysterious wonders hidden within. Seed pods, stamen, pistol and pollen all feature strongly in the jewellery I make as I've long been fascinated by the reproductive parts of plants & how they function; as well as the question of why we, as an entirely different species, can find them so erotic?

The special characteristics and physiological attributes plants use to attract and entice both pollinators and prey, or to repel their predators can often mirror our own methods to such an extent that it's no wonder they have come to mean so many things to so many people. Throughout history plants and their flowers have held such symbolic meanings for us as passion & romance, youth & beauty, fertility & maturity, fragility & strength, healing & reconciliation and the cycle of life.

In my own work I often examine the overlooked, undesirable or odd aspects of plant life; giving as much attention to the beauty and usefulness of a weed, the texture of bark or that which would normally go unnoticed, as I would to any greenhouse stunner. There is a beauty and pleasure to be had from the mundane, or that which is routinely disregarded, and I always hope the jewellery I make will encourage the wearer to view things in a different way and appreciate the value and splendor of something they had never before considered.