About Me

I make organic, sculptural forms in willow bought from Somerset and delicate plaited vessels in bark and other plant materials harvested from hedgerows, gardens and roundabouts.

My work is mainly contemporary but calls on a rich and varied craft tradition. I am drawn to sculptural forms, which for me echo the high curves and low curves of spare open landscapes: the Yorkshire Dales and Wolds, Norfolk and Suffolk coasts, estuaries and tidal mudflats; and the forms and patterns made by water, wind and wave. My willow vessels are made using the rope-wale (or rope coil) weave, which involves adding a new rod at every stroke and weaving with a bundle of willow. The technique is slow and time-consuming and uses a lot of willow; but I love the sense of movement it creates and feel it best evokes the landscape forms and forces that guide me.

I found basketmaking after a career in urban regeneration and loved it instantly. I’d never thought of making the objects I’d been seeing, buying and admiring on my travels. And baskets in this country had become for me, as for many people, invisible. Ubiquitous holders of stuff. Since then I have taken short courses with a number of well-known basketmakers and trained for two years on the City Lit Basketry Course, completing in 2017. The following year I was selected for the London Creative Network programme and won the Cockpit Arts/ The Worshipful Company of Basketmakers’ Award, 2019. In 2019 I was delighted to be invited to participate in a major exhibition of contemporary basketry; ‘Basketry - function and ornament’ at Ruthin Craft Centre and in 2020 to be part of ‘The Natural Room’ exhibition at Sarah Myerscough Gallery.