I’ve been interested in jewellery making for as long as I can remember. When I was little, my Mum made jewellery – beaded earrings mostly, which she sold at craft exhibitions and charity sales of work. Every time we visited London she’d take us to the bead shops in Covent Garden and my sister and I would choose beads so that we could have a go too. I still remember the ear-screw findings we’d have to use for our unpierced ears – painful!

I did Fashion Design at University and loved it, but on finishing my degree I enrolled at Glasgow School of Art to train in silversmithing, which inspired me even more. Unfortunately, with student debt to pay off, jewellery-making wasn’t a viable full-time career. During the following years I worked in events, marketing, beauty and luxury property, honing all sorts of other useful skills, and had children, which left very little time for anything else! But my interest in jewellery never faded.

Twenty years passed. Then my aunt – Mum’s sister, who’d been an artist, jewellery-maker and potter – died. And to my enormous surprise, she left her jewellery bench and tools to me in her will. She had been a big inspiration to me growing up and always a champion of my creative efforts. It felt like a sign.