My interest in mosaic making began in 1997 when I went to an exhibition of mosaics by Martin Cheek in Ramsgate Library. I was fascinated by the diversity of images the medium allowed, bought one of Martin’s kits and made my first mosaic. For my second I worked on a design from The Mosaic Book by Peggy Vance and Celia Goodricke-Clarke (Conran Octopus, 1994) and then started to develop my own ideas.
Inspiration and ideas come from life, from images I find appealing and from my love of colour, pattern and texture. Some of my more representative pieces have included Red Pepper and Whelk. I love the galleon images of William de Morgan and, more recently, Julien Sinzogan, and these are images I return to in my work. I use the shape of the sails to play with pattern, and Gustav Klimt inspires much of my pattern work. Early mosaics are also inspiring – my Fish with Guilloche draws on Roman border patterns and mosaics from Pompeii.
