Lynn Kelly

Kelly was born in the Wellington suburb of Tawa, the daughter of Jim Kelly, a geriatric specialist, and Evelyn Kelly, a noted ceramic artist.^[3] The family moved to Whanganui, which helped to nurture Kelly's love of nature. She originally worked as a gardener, and studied for a certificate in craft design at Wanganui Regional Community College when she worked for the college's groundskeeping team.^[4]

Kelly began making jewellery in 1988 using precious metals, organic materials and sometimes fossilised plants.^[2] Her work is distinctive for recreating the forms of ferns, seed pods and flowers in metals.^[5]

In 2004, Kelly won the Molly Morpeth Canaday Wear Aotearoa Award.^[5] She had work represented in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Jewellery Biennale exhibitions, and in 2007 she won the Dowse Foundation Gold Award.^[2][4] In 2012, Kelly received a Wild Creations residency from Creative New Zealand and the Department of Conservation.^[6] In 2014 she was artist-in-residence for Auckland City Council at Scandrett Regional Park.^[2]