Materiality Between Discarded and Desired

Materiality sits at the centre of my practice — not as a fixed category, but as an active field of exploration where intention meets the unexpected.

My work emerges from loops of making in which materials push back, redirect, or reveal something I could not have anticipated. These material explorations and surprises become a way of thinking, allowing hidden qualities to surface and assumptions to be unsettled.

Context shapes every decision I make. It drives a continual movement between two intertwined methodologies: Materials into Ideas and Ideas into Materials. These loops feed each other, creating a dynamic process in which transformation is not a goal but a condition — a way of staying open to what the material wants to become.

Many of the natural materials I use are locally sourced — rocks found in the bush or on the beach, carved or left raw — grounding the work in the environment that surrounds me. Their presence carries a quiet authenticity, a sense of origin that cannot be manufactured.

In contrast, my use of synthetic, lab‑grown materials is a deliberate response to the destructive and exploitative systems that underpin the jewellery industry. By choosing alternatives, I aim to expose the human and environmental costs of precious stone mining, and to imagine a future where ethical choices are not exceptional but expected.

Much of my practice revolves around materials that society has already dismissed: discarded objects, low‑value fragments, things considered worthless. Value, after all, is not inherent — it is a learned, negotiated, and often manipulated agreement. History is full of examples, from the tulip mania to contemporary luxury markets, where value is revealed as a collective illusion. I enjoy working inside that tension. By combining multiple low‑valued materials, or by adding just enough attention, labour, or context, I test how something overlooked can shift into something that feels valuable. That moment of revaluation — when the material crosses an invisible threshold — is one of the most compelling parts of my process.

My materials come from everywhere: cat hair, carbon from motors, computer hard drives, fan grills, plastics, laminates, mirrors, and metals salvaged from scrap yards. I repurpose costume jewellery, distressed timbers, and other remnants of previous lives. Each carries its own story, and together they form new narratives through their interactions.

Ultimately, my work challenges traditional ideas of beauty and worth. It asks viewers to reconsider materials that harm people and the planet, and to revalue what has been ignored or discarded. This ongoing exploration is both addictive and transformative — a loop of opening, seeing, and re‑seeing. Through it, I hope to expand our understanding of what materials can be, and what they can mean, when we allow them to speak beyond the systems that once defined their value.

Constituted, brooch, 2025, rubber, Christmas decorations, resin, paints

COVER series brooch, 2020, Carneleon, found custom jewellery  brooch, copper

COVER series brooch, 2020, (back detail)Carnelian, found custom jewellery ear clip, cotton

Zero Nero, necklace, 2013, Cat hair, found plastics, nylon, leather, HDF, graphite, glass, greywacke, argillite, onyx, foam, smoky quarts, rubber.

Target, pin (back view), 2025, flurite, vintage ear clip (with blue rhinestone), nylon