I believe that colour plays a vitally important role in the world in which we live. Colour can sway thinking, change actions and cause reactions.

I’ve always felt very at ease with colour and have an instinctive relationship with it. At art school it was my prime means of expression and I loved to find unusual colour combinations.

Colour, which plays a vital part in my creative process, has always drawn me towards working with precious stones such as black, brown, champagne, pink or green diamonds, emeralds, rubies, spinels and sapphires in a large spectrum of colours. Every stone has its own identity and character. I’m fascinated by the way light enters the stone and its multi-facets, causing different hues to interact.

The design of each piece of jewellery is a challenge. I often get the impression that the stones are actually guiding me on this creative journey and when I’ve found the right shape and balance between the coloured precious stones and the metal it gives me great satisfaction.

 

The combining of the two is similar to painting with colour but now I’m using metal and stones, putting colours, textures, shapes and sizes together to create a unique vision. It reminds me of when I was painting in my studio. Words can’t really describe it, but it’s the same sense of balancing and creating your image until it becomes a whole and it’s only in that instant that it feels complete, and that moment is purely intuitive.

Many of my jewellery pieces are called “Colour Stories”. Each piece has its own character and different stories evolve as I create them spontaneously. I often come back to my designs, leaving them in the tray and looking at them again, and again, adding and taking away pieces until they come together as a whole.

A while ago I made a multi-sapphire necklace with large nuggets and then I decided to set the stones on both sides of the nuggets and add more gold to it. This has really come together in such a lovely way and now I think its finally finished. It’s like a small treasure necklace with beautifully shaped pieces of gold in intricate sizes, a tiny sapphire set on one side and a large nugget with a cluster of sapphires on the other. Every time the precious stones and the irregular gold, hand melted nuggets come together they create a one of a kind piece.