Influenced by the exploration into my family history, the stories of the ‘Herring Lasses’ from Scotland’s coast captured my imagination, and established itself as the main subject of my graduate collection. I began with visual research exploring form, texture and pattern through paper craft and drawing. Made using precious metals, this body of narrative silversmithing and jewellery aims to express a sense of the lives lived by Scotland’s ‘Herring Lasses’. During the herring seasons of the 19th and 20th centuries, women travelled from all over Scotland down the East coast of the UK to process herring. It was a gruelling job but allowed freedom and independence and resulted in a huge sense of female camaraderie and friendship. These collective memories combined with stories passed down by my own relatives and my natural lifelong pull to my native Scottish coast continue to be a profound inspiration for my work.