I completed my degree in Craft Design from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, specialising in metals and jewellery, and worked subsequently as a costume maker for theatre, film and TV. However, the desire to return to independent design work, as well as a longing to move home to the beautiful west of Ireland, prompted a return to Clare in 2016.
Since then I have developed this range of unique handmade wooden jewellery which is made using, as far as is possible, native, sustainably sourced Irish materials. I work out of my studio at the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon in Co. Clare.
Most of the wood I currently use is from the Yew tree, an ancient conifer species native to Ireland with a fine smooth grain. An avenue worth of trees was originally saved from a bulldozer by my dad during some land clearance on a country estate in Limerick in the 1980's. These trees have been in storage at my family home for nearly as long as I have been alive, drying and curing naturally in a shed over time, awaiting their next incarnation!
I am always adding more wood to my collection and currently have pieces of Holly, Elm, Damson, Hawthorn and more Yew collected from the locality, all drying in the same original shed. All of this wood is sustainably collected, often after winter storms or if a particular tree has to be cut down for some other reason.