My jewellery journey began later in life when we decided to sell up and move onto our yacht ‘Indecision’ in 2005, having first lived in the country, then in the city while our two children were at school. We had cruised aboard before, delivering a yacht from Greece to Tasmania with our then (just) teenage girl and pre-teen boy, visiting over 20 countries along the way and having many wonderful, exciting, and sometimes scary, character-forming adventures. The plan was to sail with them again, but that plan was a pipe dream – we didn’t get the chance to take another long trip until they had left home.

I have always been creative, I’ve had a go at lots of things, including picture framing, watercolours, portraiture, lead-lighting and fused and slumped glass. I majored in Ceramics at the University of Tasmania’s School of Art and planned to be a production potter, while simultaneously pursuing a career in publishing. The publishing could be continued on the yacht, but it’s pretty hard to make pots or work with glass, so my love affair with jewellery-making began.

After nearly a decade afloat, we are now very definitely shore-based, in the beautiful Southern Beaches area of South Eastern Tasmania. Our yacht has been exchanged for a very basic slid-on camper that occasionally gets a trip away to one of our remote beaches, or highland lakes.

On a small rural property I share an idyllic lifestyle with my husband, who keeps us supplied with fresh home-grown fruit, veggies and eggs. Solar power and rainwater collection and recycling help keep our lifestyle sustainable as we follow our dream of leaving ‘only footprints in the sand’.

Our solar-passive house was built by us, with a little (lot of) help from our knifemaker son (organicblades.com), who shares my passion for making beautiful and useful handcrafted works of art.

My jewellery is handmade, mostly using Sterling silver, but sometimes incorporating gold, brass, copper, gemstones or other materials. The designs are simple, intuitive, a joy to make and, hopefully, fun to wear.

Where possible I use reclaimed and recycled metals and all gemstones are ethically sourced. Opals are my favourite, and I source them directly from the opal miner in Coober Pedy, South Australia.