Beastie Assemblage

I grew up on a smallholding in Shropshire, surrounded by fields full of wild flowers and quizzical animals, which I loved to paint and sketch.  I went on to train as an illustrator and designer at Shrewsbury School of Art and then Glyndwr University, then worked freelance for the next 20 years for various gift companies and museums.

Four years ago, I opened a gallery in the historic Scottish town of Jedburgh. I live at an old watermill near the Jed river, with a large and unruly garden. While digging my garden, I kept finding all these beautiful pieces of pottery, old keys and bottles hidden in the soil like pieces of treasure. This inspired me to create a range of assemblage and jewellery for the new gallery, drawing on my love of folk art and French automata.

My garden became a rich source of inspiration and finds such as broken pottery for my creations. The antique and charity shops in Jedburgh also donate their pretty chipped cups, lonely saucers and redundant keys to be turned into a quirky Beastie Assemblage.

So now I find myself surrounded by dancing birds flapping their china wings and wagging their twirling copper tails, and hares with brass whiskers leaping through undergrowth of silver and pewter, taking me right back to my childhood in the Shropshire hills.