For millennia, pins have been objects of use, of desire, and even of veneration. Pins were one of the ingredients in medieval witches’ bottles, placed under the hearth to protect a home from evil spirits. I have collected pin designs from all ages and cultures and cast them using paper dipped in liquid bone china. My pins call to mind a hoard of treasure from a lost civilisation, but also speak to how the way we make has changed over time.

In the 18th century, a single worker could laboriously hand-produce ten to twenty pins a day. By the 19th century, pin factories were producing tens of millions of pins a year. When making my pins, I ended up mirroring the intensive hand-working process of the 18th- century worker. The pins are pieces of art but also labours of frustration and love.