Having had a fine art training, I moved into environmental science and came to basketmaking in the late nineties. I make functional and sculptural baskets from willow and other plants. The Argyll landscape is an inspiration, along with the abundance, colour and vitality of what grows around me, especially in my woodland garden overlooking Loch Melfort.

I am interested in the expressive possibilities of basketry and fascinated by the instinctive obsession that compels a bird to make a particular nest.

I gather plants to shape forms that hold a private memory of a season and place; in the case of “Yellow and Red”, a sunny day at the end of a long wet winter. “Walking Stick” reflects the profusion of local plant life and “Pussy Willow” preserves the exuberance of willow in spring. “Dogwood and Lichen” celebrates the blue of the lichen blown from larch trees after a winter storm.