About Me

10 things about me

  1. I have been making mosaics since 2003 and have participated in lots of exhibitions, undertaken commissions and taught hundreds of people how to make mosaics, several of whom have gone on to establish their own successful mosaic art studios. Until 2009, I practised as a social worker and Head of Learning & Development in a national children’s charity, when I stepped back to concentrate on raising my young family and developing my mosaic art. Nowadays, I only teach mosaics in bespoke sessions that support people in marking life transitions, losses and recovery from trauma. Mostly, I enjoy my own making, whilst focusing on my wider career as a mental health practitioner.

  2. I’m a psychotherapist (registered and accredited with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy). As part of my MSc in Mental Health Studies, I won an award for my work on mosaic-making and mental health, which culminated in my Behind the Glass exhibition.I am also a qualified social worker of over 30 years and a published researcher in the trauma field, following my Master's from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, where I undertook research on the assessment and treatment of trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

  3. I’m a UK-born Anglo-Italian, and spent part of my childhood in Italy. Think white sandy beaches and acres of vineyards… In recent years, I have renovated my paternal family home in the Sicilian mountains, where I spend time with family and friends.

  4. I’m a bit of an urban hippy - tree-hugging, hand-crafting, veg growing, carbon-reducing lover of all things slow and natural. Our allotment is my happy place and my connection to mother nature is an ever-growing love and source of peace.

  5. Favourite colours – turquoise and red. Fave shapes – swirls and curls. Fave seasons – spring and autumn. Fave food – artichokes, asparagus, rice, fish, watermelon. OK, ok…I know that was more than one thing….

  6. Yup, my hair is naturally curly (I used to try and straighten it when I was a teenager – how silly!)

  7. Van Morrison is my all time favourite musical artist – Irish mystic and musical genius. Love.

  8. I am a co-founder of a not-for-profit organisation, Survivors Voices, that works with survivors of interpersonal trauma & abuse. I consider it a total privilege to listen to and bear witness as people bravely share their brokenness and discover the part of them that was never broken.

  9. I am wife to a loving husband and mother to two beautiful humans whose growth into their own becoming is the biggest joy of my life.

  10. Ok…that was only 9 things! I guess the rest is still being written…

Why ‘Glittering Shards’?


“Everything is broken” - Bob Dylan


“There is a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in” - Leonard Cohen

Mosaics are a reflection of life and an embodiment of hope. It doesn’t take much observation or introspection to realise that so much in us and around us is broken. Yet that brokenness, with patient care and attention, can be transformed into something life-giving and beautiful.

I began Glittering Shards in 2004. Around that time, I was reading a book by spiritual writer, Henri Nouwen. In this, he recounts a scene from a Bernstein play where a beautiful glass chalice falls and is smashed into hundreds of tiny pieces. The once powerful priest who had held the chalice looks down at the shattered glass and says “I never knew something broken could be so beautiful”.

That phrase somehow summarised my own life journey and dovetailed intuitively into my love of mosaics. It was then that the words “Glittering Shards” came into my head, capturing the essence, not just of the mosaic medium but also of the heart and soul of who I am as a psychotherapist, social worker, mosaic artist and person. Whichever season of my life I find myself in, my hope springs from a conviction that all that is broken can be transformed. This is a work in progress both on this site and in my own life. Thank you for sharing the journey.