I live in South Pembrokeshire, at the end of a narrow peninsular, on a small muddy bay off Milford Haven Waterway. Here I make two and three dimensional objects, including painted textiles, jewellery and sculptures, informed by the materials I find along the shoreline within a one mile radius of my home, in particular colour rich beach plastic and natural clay ochres.  Using what's to hand has always felt right to me:  it’s a way of moving away from consuming virgin materials from a rapidly depleting supply of natural resources whilst adding to climate change and increasing waste production.  But it's also a way of responding to my environment in a more mindful way. Walking daily close to home and noticing both the natural and unnatural things around me, that are specific to my place, enriches my practice.

I work mainly with plastic that is washed up on the beach.  I'm attracted to its chemical bright colours and the marks that tell of its journey across the sea to my beach where it is scattered like confetti along the shoreline. These bright pops of colour draw my eye as I walk - they delight and disturb in equal measure.  My love of texture and colour is satisfied by collecting these pieces. I cut, scratch and embellish them and combine with recycled silver. The shapes in my jewellery are inspired by the hulls of tankers and abandoned boats, shells, pebbles and fossils. It comes together as bold, colourful contemporary jewellery for people who care about the environment and the things they buy.

I live alongside ancient geology, rich natural habitats, oil refineries and power stations and through my use of colour and materials I want my work to reflect those contradictions.  I see my choice of materials and their colours as metaphors, representing our choices as consumers - how we want it all - both a thriving natural world as well as the convenience of cheap food and a throw-away culture. I love the fast sugar-like rush of neon colour even though I know it's made of damage causing chemicals. 

Colour and material are my drivers.  I use repurposed waste cardboard, paper and old clothing as my substrates onto which I paint the natural earth pigments and embedded plastic motifs.  I'm interested in how what we consider ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ might strangely merge when forces beyond our current understanding are at play. Could plastics, in time, reconnect to their plant based origins through new hybrid eco systems created by bacteria colonising nano plastics in the ocean. I take these ideas and use images of worm-like creatures, porous surfaces, algae and bacteria to inspire the visual language alongside nets, woven grids and marks made by the sea.