Curls covered the bench for weeks - it seemed as if a bird had shed its plumage on the bench, or a nesting bird had been disturbed. Each of my workshop team worked together adding curl to curl, changing directions of the positioning daily. Finally with all the curls created we focused on how to bring it all together. The key was how to build a shaft that would give it gentle movement and flexibility, each curl individually moving as a feather would naturally. The shaft of a feather is a living part of the bird so there is always movement ... but how to recreate this? I thought about mechanical movements, watch and clock springs and remembered that a steel spring has movement ... could we thread a steel wire from calamus to the tip of the feather?

As a team we brought the curls of the feather together... now and again a ruffled feather amongst us of course! And as we did so some of us began thinking about how the brooch mechanism could be attached. With a little invention - spurred on by the excitement of the jewel as it started to come to life and lots of imagination we built a clasp mechanism with a witty feature that allowed the brooch to be 'en tremblant' on the wearer. I love to break down traditional barriers of jewellery and make jewels that are gloriously original and utterly timeless. My understanding of the design process and having worked at the bench at the start of my career enables me to design jewels that are sculpted to be worn. A jewel moves with the body, inviting the wearer to co-create a narrative that seems completely unique.

The metal still crude and unpolished it was now the moment to bring our feather to life. After being assayed at the Goldsmiths' Hall in London and stamped with the CG maker's mark and metal fineness. It was now ready for the traditional art of pre-polishing, where each section is polished separately, and the back holes must be individually threaded. Next was the setter's turn to add his flourish to the jewel by placing all 317 stones perfectly into the settings. I always feel that stones have dormant passions that come to life when they are mounted as jewels. Diamonds come from the dawn of time at the heart of the earth and so link us to our universe. Each curl is set up one by one in setting cement and the diamonds chosen to fit the graduating shape of each curl, differences of tenths of a millimetre are all important. With a final flourish a small stone was set in the pusher of the brooch frame mechanism. Then back to the mounters to bring all the curls together, threading them onto the steel spring like the embellished embroidery of a couture gown.

Finally, like a feather covered in 7.35cts. of diamond raindrops the Feather Plume Masterpiece lay sparkling on our workshop bench, the culmination of more than a year of team craftmanship.