My collecting started as a teenager with beads and has progressed ever since across a broad spectrum to include anything that I love. I have been in the business of collecting African art, artefacts tribal jewellery and beads for about twenty years. I have worked and traveled with several renowned experts, dealers and collectors from whom I absorbed the skills, knowledge and ability to discern and
recognise fine art and artefacts. In 2005 I decided that it was time to start working for myself and opened my shop Beloved Things. Even though my focus to this point had been on African art, I had done several trips to India sourcing jewellery, furniture and artefacts. This influenced my decision to expand my collecting to other parts of the world and gave me an excuse to travel (my other passion) to interesting places where I believed I would find beautiful, inspiring and beloved things which I could sell to like-minded customers. Over the years I have built up relationships with traders and dealers all over Africa from whom I am able to source a wide selection of items from remote places where it is not always possible for me to venture! Some of my most favourite places are Rajasthan (India), the Himalayas - especially Ladakh and Nepal, Ethiopia, Cambodia and Laos. In all of these places I find the warmth of the people spills over into everything around them. All have been the source of inspiration and my love affair with texture, colour and form.
