MELBOURNE FESTIVAL
Melbourne Art & Architecture Festival
20th & 21st September 2025
I shall be exhibiting a wide range of my work in my usual spot in the beautiful gardens opposite festival HQ in Church St.
Autumn Work 2025
These images show a range of my current work. Many of these and similar pieces will be available to see and to purchase at Wirksworth and Melbourne Festivals.
I am a Derbyshire-based jeweller working with silver, gold, and Shibuichi – an alloy of silver and copper. From my workshop in Haarlem Mill, my work is inspired largely by the processes I use to make each piece. I use my background as a chemist to experiment with different reaction types to achieve the effects I want to create. These include reticulation, acid etching, oxidisation and electrolytic gold plating.
All my work is hand-fabricated and uses no pre-built components. All you see is the end result of taking raw metal + stone + design + soldering, welding, oxidising, hammering, drilling, polishing, more polishing and yet more polishing! I use recycled metals and only source precious stones from countries that do not use child labour or impose poor working conditions.
Over the past few years my work has developed to increasingly reflect the global situation, including climate change and conflict, and the impact of these on mental health. Many such pieces are still in various stages of development and not yet on this site. Scroll down to find out more about my inspiration, my process, and examples of my work. And please do visit my Instagram page to see my latest finished pieces.
Rings
Inspiration and Design
Natural processes of decay and regrowth, industrial processes such as quarrying and their effect on the landscape,
Environmental processes of renewal and regeneration of plants and wildlife in disused industrial sites
Ancient processes used in making jewellery such as glass trade bead production, gold smelting and granulation.
Impacts of environmental stressors on mental health and the ability to recover.
Shibuichi (四分一)
Shibuichi is a Japanese copper alloy of 25% silver and 75% copper. It’s great to work with because it never reacts the same way to heat twice.
For the light-coloured ring pictured, after soldering the ring shank onto the main disc and then soldering 18ct gold bezel onto the right one for the black spinel stone, the metal had changed colour completely from copper coloured
through to black to this lighter interesting colouration.
The darker pieces show how small changes to the process generate quite different colour patterns. Each piece is unique!
Commissions
I love creating jewellery to my customer’s specification. Contact me if you’d like to discuss an idea or find out more.
Commissions are subject to my Terms of Business. By commissioning work you agree that you have read the Terms of Business and agree to be bound by them.
Workshops
I run regular workshops allowing you to to earn about and practise some of the techniques that I use.
Recent workshops have provided an introduction to enameling on copper, including scraffito, and stencils to introduce pattern. More advanced workshops include enameling on silver, using cloisonne or painting enamels to create
designs. Please contact me if you would like your own bespoke workshop!
Sustainability & Ethics
All the raw materials for my jewellery are ethically sourced – particularly important for precious stones. I melt down and reuse leftover metals, sometimes using the water casting method to create new organic silver shapes. Non-recyclable elements are kept to a minimum, with a target of zero-waste.
