I have some new beautiful Quilpie crysytal opal
that I have set into a pair of brooches again using imagery from the garden.

I am in love with the combination of opal and amethyst - and keep returning to it in this series.  There's something about the colour violet and the soft blues and green of the opal that works so well with the enamel - each complimenting and bringing out the best in the other.

The pictured brooch is cloisonne enamel on fine silver, with a pear shaped crystal opal and a rectangular amethyst, set in a sterling silver frame 36mm x 36mm.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor is an exhibition celebrating 100 years of International Womens Day.  100 Australian women jewellers were invited to make brooches telling the stories of 100 notable Australian women. 

I was very pleased to have an opportunity to make a brooch honouring the garden designer Edna Walling for this exhibition.   I have long been an admirer of her pioneering design philosophies and her championing of relaxed natural garden design.  All a bit messy and comfortable, just the way I like gardens to be. 

However it was Edna’s drawings that really fascinated me when I started looking through books about her.  Her soft hand-coloured pen and ink garden plans have a beauty and originality of their own – and it was these that I used as inspiration for my brooch.  I used the fine silver lines that are so characteristic of cloisonne to emulate her drawing of plants and rock work paths, and her limited palette of pinks, greens and lavender for colour.  I added gemstones in the exact colours of her painting to add richness and highlight to the brooch. 

This inspiring exhibition opened at Gallery Artisan in Brisane 3 September 2011 and will be travelling to selected regional galleries throughout 2012 and 2013.  An itinerary can be viewed at   http://www.artisan.org.au/index.php/gallery/tinker-tailor-soldier-sailor

This is the first of four new pieces for the 'In The Garden' series of cloisonne enamel miniatures.  The series deals with our presence and relationship with plants and gardens.  I am asked sometimes what the figures mean.   The figures are us, you and I - and represent our 'better selves'.
The panel is 600mm x 600mm (320mm x 360mm framed)

I have just completed two more brooches in the Night and Day series. 

The brooches are designs of silouettes of plant forms and reflections of silvery night light on leaves.  I have used a combination of cloisonne and champleve enamel techniques, and have included an amethyst cabachon in one of the brooches.  

Each brooch is 58mm x 18mm and is set in a sterling silver frame.

The enamel exhibition 'All Fired Up' has moved from The Goldsmiths Gallery in San Remo to the Ken Gray Alister Reid Gallery in Collins Street.

A small collection of my brooches, pendants and earrings as well as several framed miniatures are included in the exhibition which will run for most of June.

Pictured - framed mainiature cloisonne enamel 'Leaves of Glass'  120mm x 60mm

The Gray Reid Gallery is at 156 Collins Street Melbourne.

I will be one of six enamellers from the gallery Studio Fusion who will be included in a joint exhibition of jewellers from the Oxo Building participating in London Jewellery Week.

The exhibition titled 'Bench Mark' celebrates traditional jewellery hand skills and for Studio Fusion Gallery it is an opportunity to re-emphasize their enduring commitment to enamelling.  Work from enamellers Sarah Letts, Joan MacKarell and Tamar Winter, Jane Short, Jane Moore and myself will be featured.

Among the new work that I have made for this exhibition is this brooch featuring a stunning Quilpie crystal opal with flashes of red, hot pink, green and blues, and an amethyst.  The brooch is 35mm x 35mm.

The exhibition will open on 6th June and runs until 24th July 2011.

Studio Fusion Gallery is located on the first floor of the contemporary design complex of the Oxo Tower Wharf on London's South Bank.

I will have a small collection of work in the enamel exhibition 'All Fired Up' at The Goldsmiths Gallery in San Remo Victoria during the Gippsland 'Light' Festival, 4-26 May 2011.

Brooches, pendants and earrings as well as several framed miniatures will be on display. Pictured is a brooch from the Poinciana Series.

The exhibition will move to the Ken Gray Alister Reid Gallery, Collins Street Melbourne in June.

I have just completed another brooch using a beautiful Andamooka opal.  I have tried to emulate and compliment the cool blues and greens of the stone, as well as the repeating the unusual marquis shape in line and solid silver shapes.
The brooch is 43mm x 43mm and is cloisonne and champleve enamel on fine silver, set in a sterling silver bezel

I have three small framed miniatures on display as part of the Eat / Paint / Love exhibition of artworks about food being held at Still@the Centre Gallery in Byron Bay, opening Friday Dec 9.

The works are from a continuing series dealing with the importance of seeds and plant diversity to the world's food sources.

A small collection of jewellery and framed miniatures is on show as part of a diverse exhibition of jewellery at Art Piece Gallery in my home town in Mullumbimby until January 2011.
Pictured - Brooch - 'Spring Wind', cloisonne and champleve enamel in fine silver with citrine.

I have been setting crystal opals with enamel for several years now – mostly for an opal retailer in Sydney.  Occasionally I make pieces to sell through my regular outlets as well.

This is a recent piece using an Andamooka opal.  It is a cloisonné and champleve enamel brooch that includes a small square cabochon amethyst as well. 

Opal and enamel can be a stunning combination.  It is an enjoyable and subtle design exercise to set them together.   Care must be taken with colour choices as some colours combined with the opal will steal the stones strength, and others will actually enhance the beauty of the opal.   Crystal opals are my favourite and work best with the transparent luscious colours of the enamel.  The beautiful translucent clarity of the stones with their flashes of blues, greens and sometimes a little red or violet, are very alluring.

In September I was commissioned by Australian author Bryce Courtenay to make three cloisonne enamel brooches illustrating the main character from his new novel - 'Fortune Cookie'.   As I do not usually make overtly representational work, I was a little reluctant, but Bryce was persuasive and encouraging.  After a few days researching, drawing, and testing enamels, I thought that I would be able to make something beautiful for him.

The brief was very specific - it was to be a picture of a beautiful Chinese woman wearing a black cheongsam sitting in a peacock feather cane chair with part of a shapely leg showing.  Red shoes, red lips, and possibly a blue lotus or a Singapore orchid as well.

I supplied a drawing which was well received and then made three almost identical copies of the brooch.  The final pieces are cloisonné enamel set in sterling silver bezels 62mm x 46mm. The commission was very enjoyable and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of creating a realistic picture and extending my skills with tiny pieces of cloisonne wire. 

The book 'Fortune Cookie' by Bryce Courtenay was released November 15 2010.

A brooch from the ‘In The Garden’ series recently won The Kiyomizu Sannenzaka Museum Award, at the 23rd International Cloisonne Jewellery Exhibition in Japan. 

The brooch is one of a series of 8 brooches in the theme of the visual pleasures of the garden, and featured pink tourmalines and peridot set into the enamel.

A brooch from my ‘In The Garden’ series recently won the award for 'Contemporary Jewellery, predominately precious metal'  at the recent A&E Metal Merchants fourth annual survey exhibition, Explorations 09.   The exhibition was at Gaffa Gallery, Surry Hills, Sydney and is moving to Guildford Lane Gallery in Melbourne from 3 December 2009.   Prizes to the value of $1000 worth of A&E Metal Merchants products were won in three categories - Contemporary Jewellery, predominately precious materials,  Contemporary Jewellery, predominately non-precious materials and Hollowware and Objects

The winning piece - a brooch from my recent solo exhibition at Makers Mark in Melbourne was from a series of multicoloured brooches containing lush gemstones and illustrating the visual pleasures of the garden and are observations of plant and floral forms and seasonal change.

My framed cloisonné enamel miniature titled ‘Migration’ has been awarded a Special Award at the 42nd International Enamelling Art Exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum in Tokyo Japan.    414 artworks from 18 countries were entered. 
'Migration' deals with the movement, relationships and interdependence of different life forms on this planet.  The piece is 180mm x 60mm (400mm x 290mm framed).