Brooches

Linear disruptions of ghost pearls with an accent of inky black oxide.

Pearl Essence is a collection of works seeded by the glorious paintings in the Tudor Galleries in London’s National Portrait Gallery. The lustre of pearls in some of these paintings is skilfully depicted in a way that resembles a lunar halo, or suggests a spectral echo of luminosity.

These brooches reference Elizabethan pearls stitched onto sumptuous fabrics such as inky black velvet or ivory white satin.

Fine silver, oxide, steel pins.

Scalloped edged ghost pearls surround a velvety background of inky black oxide.

Pearl Essence is a collection of works seeded by the glorious paintings in the Tudor Galleries in London’s National Portrait Gallery. The lustre of pearls in some of these paintings is skilfully depicted in a way that resembles a lunar halo, or suggests a spectral echo of luminosity.

This brooch references Elizabethan pearls stitched onto sumptuous fabrics such as inky black velvet.

Fine silver, oxide, steel pin.

A linear disruption of ghost pearls on a velvety background of inky black oxide.

Pearl Essence is a collection of works seeded by the glorious paintings in the Tudor Galleries in London’s National Portrait Gallery. The lustre of pearls in some of these paintings is skilfully depicted in a way that resembles a lunar halo, or suggests a spectral echo of luminosity.

This brooch references Elizabethan swags of pearls stitched onto sumptuous fabrics.

Fine silver, oxide, steel pin.

The fair-mined moonstone came from a mine near Meetiyagoda in the south-west of Sri Lanka. It’s surrounded by gold to suggest the glow of a full moon on a clear night, flanked by waxing and waning silver moons.

Stone-hammered fine silver, fair-mined moonstone, recycled 18ct gold, oxide, steel pin.

A perfect example of slow making and digestive memory.

The softly folded stone-hammered form was made in early 2019. It wasn’t right for the piece I had in mind, but had a gently portentous presence that I couldn’t ignore.

SoI looked at it, strung it up, turned it around; hid it, retrieved it and carried it with me.

Then, looking at a photograph taken on the beach at sunset on the Winter Solstice, it crystallised as a piece. I inverted a lovely citrine I’d had since the 90's and feel it’s found its place, surrounded by textural layers of ancient looking, rich gold leaf.

Fine silver, 22ct and 24ct gold leaf, citrine, steel pin. 2021

This award-winning brooch was described at Goldsmiths’ Fair 2022 by Joanna Hardy as “such a joyous jewel.”

A larger and more rounded oval than the Winter Solstice brooch, this beauty has a slightly paler inverted citrine to suggest brighter sunlight. A yellow diamond summons the hallucinatory sparkles of summer sunshine.

Fine silver, 22ct and 24ct gold leaf, citrine, yellow diamond, sterling silver, steel pin. 2022

A metaphor for contained energy poised to manifest; for currently tethered potential, ready for release as a steady flow of realised momentum.

Let it carry you through.

Fine and sterling silver, Aragonite Sputnik crystal, steel pin. 2023

The idea of the Skyspace has been a subliminal obsession since I first experienced one on top of the Hayward Gallery in London in the summer of 1993. Memories of subsequent visits to Skyspaces have been surfacing more often over the past few years, re-ignited decades later as a bubbling thought strand during my Artist’s Residency courtesy of the Bengel Foundation at Campus Idar-Oberstein, in Germany’s landscape of agate.

Fine and sterling silver, dyed blue agate, steel pin. 2025

Part of the Celestial Jewel Narratives series of Jewels for Sky Gazers. This brooch is an assemblage of uplifting blue hues and gems that all relate to the sky, emanating a sense of peace.

Fine silver, 18ct gold, turquoise, kyanite, Sky Blue topaz, labradorite, silk, lapis lazuli, steel pin. 2023