Terry has been working as an artist for over 30 years and her main inspirations come from the materials she works with and is particularly moved by wood, and by the process of burning into it with designs that reflect movements found in nature; leaves, hair, tree branches, water. Her work has developed partly through engaging with the materials but also by engaging with the work of other sculptors, in particular Barbara Hepworth, Tim Stead and Anthony Smart, from whom she learnt welding skills. Metals also play an important part in her work and even in her wooden pieces she loves to use traditional gilding techniques, which she studied at West Dean College in West Sussex.

Her work has developed over the years, moving through fascinations with geometrical shapes from cubes to cones, but always involves elements of fire/heat, whether actual (in burning processes) or symbolic (in the gold of gilded surfaces). After 12 years in Argyll on the West coast of Scotland Terry recently returned to Yorkshire, and now lives and works in Northallerton using wood from local fallen trees or recycled from old structures.