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I work in a paradox. The inspiration is antiquity, but the work is very much a product of the 21st century.  I forge fuse and pin things like a 15th century artisan, but I often use bakelite, the world’s first thermoplastic, as a transport for gold, silver, platinum and gemstones.

I learnt my craft from master jewellers from Egypt, Armenia, Hungary and Denmark along the workbenches of one of Melbourne’s finest jewellery workshops. I continue the tradition of bespoke jewelry, or made to order, while maintaining a healthy exhibition program and developing work for public installation.

My practice has continued in the city of Melbourne for 26 years and I feed off the activity of the city, and its laneways and arcades. It is like a hive with continual change of people, ideas and expression.

I am inspired by the otherness of materials, the mystery.  How bakelite can be carved to appear like something else, a stone, coral, or wood grain and gemstones become pools of colour that you are drawn into.

I work bakelite using traditional lapidary techniques, forming and carving the material wet. And like a sculptor facing stone or marble, I have to attend to the grain and structure before I make each piece.

People have this nostalgia for bakelite, they harken back to utilitarian things that belonged to their family, radios, kitchen containers, souvenirs.   Now that bakelite Is 100 years old, it puts plastic in the realm of antique lineage. Plastics are no longer the icon of a new age, they have become everyday.

In this anachronistic world I am

The Jeweller appointed to the Guild of Turntabulists

Doctor of Nuptial Astronomy

Stepper on Cracks

Walker up Garden Paths

Breather of Air at Irregular Intervals

Maker of Pro Ballistic Ornament

Specialist in Common Things

Alchemist on the North wind

Chief of Stuff

Deputy Lard Minder

Chair of the Committee for Quorum Filling

President of the Republic of Monarchists

Ring-King-a-Ding

Bachelor or Haughty Culture

Jack of Blades

Master of Parts

Curator of Pilferous Concerns

Custodian of the Armillary Sphere

Keeper of the Alembic Martini

Patron Saint of Vinyl

Leader of men women and fallen parking inspectors

Professor of Reboantic Studies

Purveyor of Mollusc Confections

Tribal leader of Those Who Cross Bridges

Non-Dude

Beat Monger

Glyphsmith

Jeweller