Joanna was born in Chiswick, London and brought up in Ealing, where she was educated at a convent school. After a period at Ealing College of Art, she obtained a seven year apprenticeship in the studio of sculptors Edwin Russell FRBS and Lorne McKean FRBS. Some time later, while working as a journeyman, she was asked to calculate and make a sundial. It proved to be everything she loved doing: sculpture, engineering, metalwork, mathematics and calligraphy.

She has now spent twenty five years, devising, hand-making and hand-engraving sundials and creating clocks and other sculptural pieces. Commissions have come from important public institutions and private individuals throughout the world . She has won a number of prestigious awards, including the British Sundial Society's most recent prize.

Joanna now works from a studio in South Gloucestershire and a purpose-built studio in Oxfordshire, which itself won a prize for its design. She is a Liveryman of both The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers and of the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers of London.