Samantha Dennis is a jewellery and object-based artist working in Launceston, Tasmania. Her studio practice combines the traditional jewellery craft of goldsmithing with ceramics and glass. Fascinated by the ways society has sought to explain and order the phenomena of life, her work navigates themes biology and museums to create new dialogue around the smallest and most unfamiliar lifeforms. Sam has described her childhood ambitions as torn between a career in natural sciences or the visual arts; her practice now bridges these two passions. Her current PhD research examines human relations to insects, juxtaposing tropes of preciousness and desire against typical reactions of repulsion and fear. This approach considers how jewellery can act as a filter to mediate the relationship between humans and animals, and questions how implication of function, value, and intimacy may be used to alter the way we experience insects and environments.