Cathy began work as a research scientist and teacher but her hobby all through her life was making jewellery. Her scientific background often informed the way she worked and gave her a fascination for experimentation.
However, since 2008 she has been able to devote all of her time to jewellery making and enamelling in the workshop/studio she built in Buckinghamshire. She is largely self-taught following initial tuition from her brother. Since then, she has attended numerous courses at West Dean College as well as others. She has also taught jewellery making and enamelling and is a founder member of the Buckinghamshire Craft Guild formed in 2017.
"My jewellery has been inspired by patterns and objects found around us, a landscape, parts of modern buildings and the shore line. I also enjoy using art to guide my work such as sculpture, photography and paintings created by other artists. These inspirational sources help me to create very varied pieces of jewellery and over the years I have produced many different collections, some of which I still work on.
"Working with techniques such as reticulated and fused silver, my work sometimes takes on an organic feel which allows me to represent a scene such as a shoreline. More recently my pieces have taken a more structural or modern architectural feel and I include fused 24 carat gold (Keum Boo) in some of the simpler pieces. I use precious and semiprecious stones for accent and sparkle as well as wet inlaid vitreous enamels. My most recent work is enamelling copper using high fired and low fired vitreous enamel on copper bowls and large pieces of jewellery, where the designs are built up through several firings in a kiln. I use techniques "borrowed" from ceramicists such as sgraffito and naked raku which give interesting results. My colours tend to be bold, so my enamelled jewellery pieces often have a Japanese or Art Deco feel.
"Much of my work is now made for a particular client, involving "fitting" the piece to the person. I sell my work through galleries, special exhibitions and during Bucks Art Weeks, but mostly directly from my workshop and by commission. Every item of jewellery I make is hallmarked by the London Assay Office and has on it my own maker's mark."