Jemma first trained for a BSc in Engineering Product Design, and worked in the fields of freelance industrial design and architectural model making before becoming a teacher of Design and Technology, a career followed for many years. With experience in making using a very broad range of materials, initial sculptural ideas were created using mixed media, whilst ceramics became first a hobby, and then a full-time occupation on leaving teaching in 2014.
Building on the long tradition of the porcelain figurine, Jemma creates expressive and detailed porcelain figures exploring upbringing and attitude, using cast doll faces, fired dressmaker’s pins and mixed media. The figures show the girls dressed for display, as a plaything, entertainment or ornament. But the work also describes strength, attitude, sisterhood and resistance, the mask as disguise to fit us into the world.
