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My year spent in Paris had a lot to do with it. I spent a year living in the household of Henri Cartier-Bresson and his wife Martine Franck, immersed in their modest but extremely cultured world, meeting a steady stream of artists, writers and musicians. It opened up a whole new world, nothing like anything I had ever experienced. Henri was deeply critical of the fashion industry! His voice kept raging in my head making me question what I was doing in this superficial business dominated by celebrity culture and rake thin girls.
Henri remains my moral hero to this day, along with Giacometti, I admire the simple way they lived and worked. Few people live like that anymore. I took the plunge and began studying sculpture in the evenings and at week-ends. I took courses in bronze casting and welding to learn the technical processes that would make me free to work with bronze.
The first piece I cast was a bronze candlestick. Christopher Nevile and Justin Meath Baker sold it within a week, to an illustrious client from their shop in Covent Garden, The Study. It then dawned on me that this could work, and on their advice I began making lamps.
see her range of wall lights >
