Olive Branch Collection, Autumn 2023

During a recent holiday to Italy, I visited the Etruscan Academy Museum in Cortona, which housed many beautiful artefacts. Amongst these, I saw this beautiful bowl. The red painted leaf patterns on the black background with a swan in the middle were reminiscent of the ancient Greek pottery I had seen in the British Museum last year. The abundance and understated beauty of olive trees in the area where we stayed made me realise where many of the patterns I had admired stemmed from.

Back in the studio, I started sketching numerous combinations of leaf patterns, drawing on my photographs of olive trees as well as this particular dish from the museum. These drawings developed into designs for a brooch, necklace and long earrings, which you can see below.

Golden Barley, Spring 2023

This collection continues with the theme of small golden leaf shapes and applies them to dainty necklaces and rings. In a different take I also repeated this pattern in a stamped pattern on ear studs and pendants.