In the British Museum, there is a small group of stone pendants from  12,500 years ago -  and the beauty of them for me is - the hole that is drilled to make each into a piece of jewellery.

I’ll always find it amazing -  that they would have used a bird bone or stick -  with sand -  and in the modern world I was struggling with diamond drill bits -  breaking one after another.

In 2003 I was an artist in residence for two months at Monash University in Melbourne. This was part of the HAT project, HAT being an acronym for Here and There - eight jewellers from Australia came to the UK and eight jewellers from the UK travelled to Australia.

The expectation of the residencies was not to use the time and space to make completed works but to record and present our creative process, particularly when - you are taken out of your home environment.

In the exhibition of the residencies my presentation was a list of films that I watched, 54 in total, and a list of books that I had read or referenced 17 in total, during the two month residency.

I fell in love with Melbourne and straight away became fascinated by the little differences of the familiar that seemed to exist between home and Australia. Autumn in May, seeing the moon upside down, short black and flat white. But after a few days I stopped noticing these antipodean anomalies. It was like falling out of love with someone and failing to acknowledge them. The following is from a short text written about this experience. I made the decision that I was going to start noticing these little differences again and much more. Not just to look but also to see and in doing so -  try to understand and appreciate what was happening to me. At first it was tiring, so easily I could switch off, but I had to be disciplined; making mental and written notes, collecting keepsakes, keeping my eyes open and not forgetting to see. Quickly it became natural again, something that I loved to do, a good reason for getting up in the morning.  Each day was now open to experiences and adventures.

Little Differences, 2003
Six months after returning from Australia I made the piece Little Differences.
50 pendants - Australian gold, synthetic polymer paint.  Height not including jump ring 2.1 cm

From a distance all the pendants seem to be the same colour, but with close inspection you realise that each one is a different shade of grey.