What I find really fascinating, and one of the reasons it is so interesting to make jewellery, is the moment of recognition when something that comes across as cute and pretty has on second glimpse an almost obscene grotesqueness. I would say this quality probably works best in jewellery, where politeness and cold-blooded anger can clash mercilessly into one another.
I see parallels in my approach to jewellery and the growth of the northern rātā, which starts life as an epiphyte in the branches of another tree. As it grows, the epiphyte rātā sends roots down to the ground. It eventually replaces the host tree when it dies. More than 20 years ago, I began using conventional jewellery pieces as a grounding material in my work. Like the epiphyte rātā, I added my attachment in gold or silver, nestling in or on a ring and also growing over entire pieces of jewellery. The ring is desperate, desperate to find a finger, desperate to tell you: I love you, I am beautiful, I am rich, I am cool, I hate you, I come from Ireland or Austria, I want more, I have enough, I am married, I am funny, I am scary, stupid, important, I can’t help you. I am.
