This website could very nearly have been all about food, restaurants and hotels. It could have included recipes for wonderful dishes such as a wild mushroom terrine and scallops with tarragon butter! Many artists and makers arrive at their second career by surprising routes. My first career was in the hotel and catering industry. 

More about my background

My father was a jeweller in the jewellery quarter in Hockley, Birmingham and my Mother was always passionate about art. As part of her teacher training when I was at junior school she did a study on stained glass and I was taken to many churches and cathedrals to look at the windows as part of her research. Some, such as the wonderful windows in Coventry Cathedral by Patrick Reyntiens and John Piper have always stayed with me.

So 20 or so years later I did stained glass at evening classes in London…and I loved it! More than I loved the day job. Around this time I considered shortening my working week to perhaps 3 days a week as my husband and I felt like gerbils in a wheel. Then, over several glasses of wine and many evenings of discussion the 3 day week miraculously transformed into zero days! I subsequently spent 2 years doing art GCSE, a year of A level and was accepted onto a Foundation course in West Thames College, West London. It was one of the best years of my life!

At this point I still didn’t really plan to do a degree but as all my fellow students were applying I thought I must too. I didn’t want to continue with stained glass – I found it rather limiting. I had found that I loved using the kiln so I applied to Middlesex University to study Three Dimensional Design which really appealed to me as I could cross disciplines and work with both glass and ceramics.

That was nearly 25 years ago and I still enjoy making just as much. For many years I worked from home as my son was born a few months after I graduated. Now I have a great work shop on the Borde Hill House and Garden Estate just north of Haywards Heath. It’s a rural setting, down a little lane and is an old converted stable. Perfect for my work and my classes!