Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived on a farm with her mother and father, her brothers and a sister. She was extremely happy in this place and loved to play in the rambling gardens around the house. Sometimes, venturing further afield with her siblings, she discovered areas of ancient faery magic within the borders of her parents’ land.

In these places—a waterfall, a shrouded wood and an enchanted lake—the girl spoke to the fey-folk, and they asked her if she ever felt different to the other children of the kingdom. When the girl answered ‘yes’ and asked them why, the faeries only turned cartwheels and disappeared, whispering: “Wait, and you will know ... In time, you will see ...”

My life thus far is too mundane overall, and the number of tiny interesting details too many, for the purpose of this biography. Hence the fanciful story ...

Many years later the faeries’ words finally held meaning for the girl. One day she found beings who looked at the world in a similar way, though they were all of different races. Then she knew she was an Elf and dwelt among them.

I have my mother to thank for encouraging all things creative in my childhood. I remember music, poetry, stories and art were a large part of our home life. The particular interests that I carried through to adulthood are playing the cello, a love of language, faery stories and myths, and some arty-crafty tendencies which, these days, take the form of handmade books.

I have always loved the physical nature of books: the smell of books, the feel of books, book covers, pretty books ... expensive books!

My first step towards creating my own was making recycled paper and binding the sheets together to form rather rough, but individual-looking, notebooks. From there I learned different techniques of book binding, such as case binding, coptic binding and variations of Japanese stab binding. I have also experimented with paper marbling.

My favourite type of binding is coptic binding. The sections are only sewn-not glued-so there’s no waiting for things to dry in the construction process. The spine of the book is left exposed and if you use special threads the sewing becomes a visual feature of the book. Coptic bound books also lie nicely flat when open, without having to ‘crack’ the spine.

I am an inveterate hoarder of interesting paper, cardboard, wrapping paper, fabric and decorative items. Many pretty items are tucked away waiting patiently for me to use them on just the right project!

When I finish making a book it becomes much more than the sum of its parts to me ... when complete it acquires its own spirit.