I started making chandeliers after finding forty glass drops in a pile of rubbish. I prefer to work with things I’ve found and let their qualities dictate what happens. I usually start working with a really simple set of ideas, a colour combination, a shape, the pieces I want to use but right from the beginning the objects develop their own character and I just follow. I find trifle moulds and crinkly pastry cutters very humorous. Toast racks are perhaps the most absurd – what better way to cool down your toast too quickly. Many of the objects I use have a very limited use in my kitchen but in my studio it’s another story. Suddenly they have enormous potential. I have always admired inventiveness. I love the articulated toy cars that African and Indian children make. In the punk era a big zip could be used as a tie, an old kettle as a handbag, a bunch of safety pins a stunning brooch. Recycling was born from need but coupled with a human desire to create, recreate, reinvent and entertain. I like to think my work is part of this age-old tradition.

Reclaimed Recycling in contemporary British Crafts and Design, The British Council, London 1999