SHIFT o CAPE BRETON CENTRE FOR CRAFT AND DESIGN February 2026

In 2019 I travelled to Nova Scotia School of Art and Design with 4 other makers from Applied Arts Scotland to meet our Canadian colleagues for this project. The final piece Bird of Passage is the result of my collabaration with project partner, jeweller, Rebecca Hannon. We worked remotely for 18 months to create a set of human scale wings. Each wing consists of 59 component pieces with every feather an individual research project using materials and techniques with sustainability at their core. I selected my materials (paper, plastic and ceramic) based on a “closed loop” approach in which as little as possible is wasted. The wings represent the natural world that connects our countries and the environmental issues that we need to work together to tackle.

Bird of Passage has formed the centre piece of the Meet, Make, Collaborate exhibition which toured venues in Scotland in 2022 and 2023 and has now arrived in Canada to be a part of the Shift exhibition.