Symbolically as well as physically powerful, stone has always been a mysterious and potent presence in human life. How can we comprehend the scale of existence and transformations of stone? Volcanoes, mountains, tectonic plates. . . How it is we can see into something so hard and otherwise inaccesible?

Having been curious but ignorant about working stone, I first learned about jade/nephrite carving from Jamie Fergus (visit Jamie Fergus's website) during his residency at Metalab Gallery in 2007 (visit Metalab). That was the practical beginning of what looks like becoming a lifelong passion.

I joined a lapidary club, I have spent days and nights at noisy machines cutting and grinding stone. I spent two weeks travelling by road to the centre of South Australia in 2008 in order to buy my own weight in jade. The temptation to fossick gets into one's blood, and on the same trip I found a hoard of beautiful vintage glass in an old landfill site. Next April I'm going on a stone-centred trip around Tasmania.