Bern is a self-taught jeweller who began making jewellery while living in the United States in the 1970s.
[3] In 1992 Bern became Head of Jewellery, and continued to teach at Unitec until 2012, working with a number of students who went on to become significant artists in their own right, including Areta Wilkinson, Octavia Cook, Jane Dodd and Joe Sheehan.
[4] A necklace of silver strands woven to resemble small steel wool pot scrubbers won her the Thomas Foundation Gold Award in 2000,[5] and the piece she created as a result, made from 80 metres of 18ct gold wire, is in the collection of the Dowse Art Museum.
[5] In 2003 Bern was awarded the Creative New Zealand Craft/Object Art Residency, giving her the opportunity to spend two months working with other jewellers at the Gray Street Workshop in Adelaide.
[6] Major exhibitions include 'Strain, Grate, Whisk, Scrub' which toured New Zealand galleries in 2000–01 and 'Colonial Goose' at Objectspace, Auckland, in 2011.