Inspiration for my work
My artist’s journey started in Indonesia in the 1990’s. I taught in a secondary school on Sulawesi, the island above Bali. In my spare time I would dive off the pristine coral reefs. When I returned from dives, I would sketch what I saw in my dive log. Many years later, in 2016, having taken the plunge and retrained as an artist, doing an MA in jewellery with glass, at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, I returned to my dive log for inspiration. By now the oceans and coral reefs were the talk of the town and not in a good way. Global warming was bleaching the reefs and floating islands of plastic, one, three times the size of France, were having very detrimental effect on fish populations and other sea dwellers, not to mention our coastlines. I wanted to draw attention, through my work to the destruction of the reefs, but, at the same time, make my pieces beautiful yet fragile.
My first collection ‘Coralscape’ comprised of nudibranch (sea slug) jewellery, worn as brooches or reversible pendants and, when not worn, they perched on their ghost-like blown glass reef, becoming a piece of art. The beautiful piece of colourful jewellery in stark contrast to the lifeless milky white reef.
My second collection ‘Vertical Reef’ is a blown glass coral reef, in milky white, to give the appearance of a bleached reef. The reef is back lit and suspended on panels on a wall. The reef shimmers, like sunlight playing on water. I have recently been given the sound files of bleached reef from scientists working on a coral rejuvenation project off Sulawesi. I have come full circle – back to the Indonesian reefs, where, excitingly, there is a glimmer of hope for the reef. I plan to make Vertical Reef into a sound and light installation to draw more attention to the plight of the reefs.
I continue to make marine inspired jewellery but having recently moved to the Gower, am now working on a collection to draw attention to plastic waste. I take part in beach cleans for MSCUK (Marine Conservation Society) as well as observing the waste deposited on our local beach. When the sea is wild it deposits large quantities of human detritus, then miraculously clears it all, leaving a pristine beach, only to deposit it somewhere else.

How I make the pieces
The nudibranchs are made in glass and copper. They start as piece of sheet metal, which I drill into, then dome, using a hydraulic press, then fill with glass and put in the kiln. The glass fuses through the holes, leaving the iconic gills, reminiscent of nudibranchs. I hand forge the silver neckpieces, stretching the forms into the desired shapes.
Vertical Reef is a blown glass coral reef. The milky-white blown glass emulates table coral. I blow the glass in a hot shop, rolling a bubble of blown clear glass in white frit (crushed up glass), layering more molten glass on top, swinging the iron to stretch the colours, then shaping the form with a damp pad of newspaper. I create the textured tops, by standing on a bench and blowing the glass form on to scrunched up balls of damp newspaper. The coral is then mounted on to shiny black Perspex panels, with lights shining through the glass and hung vertically.