Brian has spent most of his life as an engineer - making things, fixing things, and figuring out how things work. His interest in metalwork started in his early teens, drawn by the idea that a set of skills and the right materials could produce something someone else might actually want to wear or keep. That instinct hasn't changed. What has changed is the range of materials he reaches for.

Engineering taught Brian to think in processes and methodologies and a relationship with natural structure runs through everything he makes. Jewellery, it turns out, is just engineering at a smaller scale.

He finds something intriguing about the way materials respond to heat and cold, to carving and shaping, telling him what it wants to do, and he has learned that you need to take the time to understand them. Silver is central to his work, though he includes pounamu, timber and glass also. The glass in his work comes from beach walks, sea-worn fragments that already carry their own history, or from broken bottles given a second life.

In addition to small scale pieces Brian is drawn to ancient material working techniques such as blacksmithing and greenwood turning (one of the oldest woodworking traditions), using these to create larger sculptural pieces.