I started working with polythene sheet in the first year of my degree. It began as an experimental project to make a bracelet that would move when you put your hand through it and as you moved. I like to play with materials to see what they can do and how they contrast with each other, enhancing the qualities of each.

I am an ecologically minded individual finding the waste created by today's throw-away society unsettling. It is therefore satisfying, and a little ironic, to take a material that would normally be discarded and transform it into contemporary pieces of jewellery that are keepable, wearable and precious. I particularly like working with polythene because it is such an unexpected medium, it challenges the usual perception of what constitutes a jewel.

I love colour and polythene comes in a huge range of them, both solid and translucent, creating pieces with colours that remain separate or with colours that merge. I think it's perfectly acceptable to put red and pink together, it's so wrong it becomes right. The finished pieces are very tactile, taking on an irresistible life of their own. They love to be handled and beg to be played with. This time intensive hand crafted process can take anything from three hours to several days to produce one piece. In owning a piece of my jewellery you are wearing an investment of design and time.

I trained at Middlesex University, graduating in 1994, and continued making for eight years. During this period my work was shown and sold through various galleries in the UK and overseas and included in Recycled, a touring exhibition that opened at the Crafts Council during 1996. I started making again in May 2007 and now wonder why I ever stopped.