I have always loved cutting out. My mum was an early years teacher and one of my earliest memories is of me sat at her feet helping her to cut out shapes for one of her school art projects. As a lefty I always struggled to cut using my left hand so my mum taught me to cut with my right instead – and to this day, all of my collages are cut using my wrong hand.

 

I first started working in cut paper collage when my daughter was born. I had written a couple of children’s books for her and had a very clear vision of how I wanted them to be illustrated: using collage in the style of Eric Carle. So I decided to have a go myself and discovered that not only did I enjoy it, but I was actually really good at it. So I carried on. My scenes became more and more elaborate. The details became smaller and more intricate. I experimented with different kinds of papers and began using papers that meant something to me, or had meant something to some one I loved – hand written notes, theatre tickets, travel memorabilia, my dad’s stamp collection. Using these items allowed me to leave little messages in my work and hidden details for the viewer to find, maybe years later as they are cleaning the frame.

 

Now, I love making collages of places that hold happy memories for my clients, maybe a link to their childhood, a favourite holiday, a new home or the place they got married. I feel incredibly lucky and privileged that my clients trust me with those memories and the special papers that are linked to them, and allow me to reproduce them in paper form as an everlasting memory.