About Angela

I trained and worked as a jeweller in the UK in the early 1970’s and then travelled.

My first job abroad was in the wardrobe department of National Arts Centre in Ottawa. It was my first encounter with millinery. I was enthralled, but my permit required me to work as a jeweller so millinery had to take second place until back in the UK. Then by chance I was told about Rose Cory, the late Queen Mother’s milliner. Her millinery classes are world renowned. I was already on their Crafts Index as a jeweller and  Southern Arts supported me with a grant to expand my skills and study with Rose.

Later, while working as a couture milliner in the early 1990s, I first began to hear phrases on the news – ‘global warming’, ‘biodiversity loss’, ‘pollution’. My curiosity led me to Open University science courses. I wanted to do more than just hear about these topics. Eventually I was offered a full-time place at Southampton University to study for an MSci in Oceanography and Marine Biology.  Eight years later I emerged. My studies had included the taxonomy of a group of deep sea worms at the Natural History Museum and a PhD that assessed the extent of human activities in the deep North East Atlantic. Later my research included regulations governing deep sea fisheries, indicators for healthy seas and marine protected areas in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

I am now retired. The breath-taking richness of life in the ocean, which is still largely undiscovered and the impacts and extent of our actions there still haunt me. The use of needle and thread is one of my ways of talking about these concerns.

I hope my work will provoke your thoughts for the ocean.