I have a background in art, having studied it at A Level, as well as Foundation Level in Art and Design, Higher National Diploma in Jewellery and Silversmithing, and a degree in Three Dimensional Metal Design at the School of Jewellery in Birmingham. In 1998, three years after graduating, I started a jewellery business in my parent’s garden in Llanelli, before moving to a workshop and shop in Swansea. I now have a workshop and gallery in Llandeilo.

I am inspired and influenced by many things. I love to travel, particularly to Italy and Japan - two very different places, but for me they are visually and culturally exciting. I am inspired by the work of other designers who push boundaries. These include the clothes of designer Vivienne Westwood and the architecture of Zaha Hadid. My creative path was influenced from the beginning by an art teacher from my comprehensive school. His name was Norman Davies who has now sadly passed, but he was so enthusiastic and supportive of his students that most of us are still working as artists today. He taught us to question, and would ask why we would make that mark or that shape, what were our thoughts behind it - this is the foundation of my design process today.

I find inspiration from things that interest me things. I love to sketch, make notes and take photographs, and the ideas for my work develop from these. Depending on the piece of work or subject matter, I sometimes start with a rough sketch or some notes based on a vague idea and start experimenting and playing with materials. This allows the materials to almost determine the final outlook of the piece - for example, if the silver stretches and splits as I layer it and push it to extremes, I will embrace and often highlight it to become an intrinsic part of the design. This cannot be forced and it’s wonderful when it happens. Sometimes, however, if the design requires, I will meticulously plan and problem solve the piece and its construction before I start to physically work on it. I then follow the design as I’ve pre-planned. I always love the final process of finishing or polishing as there is a sense of achievement, but then there is no such thing as perfection, so it’s important to work out when to stop before polishing it and ruining it all.

I love working in all precious metals, gold, silver and palladium. They each respond slightly differently when the metal is cut or moved and shaped or joined, so my favourite way of working is when the material influences the final look of the piece. Coloured golds really fascinate me. Gold is of course yellow, but it is alloyed with other metals to make it more durable to wear, which is why we have the UK standards of 9ct, 19ct, 22ct etc. We are used to seeing it alloyed to keep it as yellow as possible but change the recipe and you have an array of colours - add more copper and the appearance is a rose or red gold, while the addition of silver and palladium make it white. I’m currently experimenting with an aluminium allow which tinges the gold purple.

As well as the metals I use, I also love playing with precious and semi-precious stones of all colours and mixing them with complimentary metals. However, if I want sparkle in my designs it has to be diamonds.

The change in my work over time can be seen and traced through all my collections and commissions - it is inevitable as I am constantly evolving, growing and learning. I still produce some of the collections I started making straight from university as they have remained timeless in design and just as popular with my customers as they were at the beginning. I may have tweaked them slightly but for the most part they are the same and I can trace them back to exact sketches I made in university.

My starting point is always something I am interested in, a subject I want to explore, study, question, redefine and reimagine.

For me it was about identity, my own Welsh identity as a non-Welsh speaker from Llanelli. What did Wales mean to me and how did I relate to my surroundings and my culture, and how did this sit with the popular images of Wales that are presented globally? I wanted to change the narrative and create work I could relate to, so I designed pieces that were rugged like parts of the beautiful landscape, layers and details that were like the rocks and slate. Layering the metal represents the structure of slate found in Wales but for me it referenced the constant questioning of what was beneath the surface.

Words in Welsh (and sometimes English) are always written in relief and in my own handwriting. This makes it personal but also words are powerful, as their meaning or the feeling behind them is sometimes lost through time or translation. I therefore wanted to add this connection so that they can be touched and felt, allowing the wearer to add their own story to the pieces.