Gold Jewellery Acquisitive Prize
CONCEPT STATEMENT
This piece is a large-scale ring that reflects on the legacy of gold in Victoria and its environmental and cultural entanglements. Finely crafted in 18-carat yellow gold, the ring takes on the shape of an oval, a classic jewellery shape, echoing traditional forms within the State of Victoria Gold Jewellery Collection. Suspended within this oval is the layout of creeks and rivers that run through and around Wandiligong, the small gold mining town in northeast Victoria where I spent the early years of my life, and where my family come from and still live.
Wandliligong was originally home to the first peoples of the Jaithamathang tribe and the name was changed from Growler’s Creek in 1872 to honour these original custodians of the land. In the early-mid 1800s Wandiligong became a booming alluvial gold settlement. When the rush subsided, it left behind a scarred and denuded landscape, a stark contrast to the heritage-listed valley it has become today. My grandmother, Coral Bennett, played a key role in its transformation and restoration. She founded the Wandiligong Preservation Society in 1972 and was later awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for her conservation work in the area.
The river and oval border will be made up of a series of tiny hand-fabricated claw-settings, referencing traditional stone-set jewellery. Instead of gemstones however, I will set fragments of microplastic which I’ve collected along riverbanks and beaches across Victoria as part of a personal mission to help clean up our waterways. Plastic is an increasingly toxic pollutant, killing wildlife and damaging the environment. Set in softly-polished gold, this discarded waste will create a striking visual and material contrast, challenging conventional perceptions of value and permanence.
This work draws on historical pieces from the museum’s collection, from cameo brooches of the 1880s, to the mid-century opal ring by William Dunkling, while reframing the narrative through a contemporary lens. It is both homage and critique, and speaks to the enduring scars of extraction, the indigenous people who were displaced, the communities built and lost to gold, and the slow, intentional work of repair.
FABRICATION PLAN
‘The Diggings Ring’ will consist of two connected ring bands to support the large oval form, worn across several fingers. The central oval shape will house an intricate network of hand-fabricated claw settings in varying sizes. Each claw setting will be carefully constructed by hand using innovative wax working techniques, then connected onto the main frame to create the river outline. This will be cast separately from the rings, however the whole framework will be soldered together before the ‘gems’ are set.
The “gemstones” to be set are small fragments of discarded plastic, collected from rivers and beaches around Victoria. Their placement and orientation will be mapped out to represent the flow of the creek, allowing the negative space (the hand) to form the surrounding landscape.
The underside of the oval, the river path and rings will be adorned with hand engraved river ferns, such as the Fishbone Water Fern and Johnstone River Fern – plants which once thrived in this local area along river banks.
The gold will be cast through a trusted local casting foundry who use only 100% recycled and refined gold. I will complete all fabrication, soldering, ‘gem’ setting, engraving, polishing and finishing of the work myself, in my Naarm based studio.
I have worked with a CAD technician to create a rendered visual of the design for planning and documentation purposes. This is a service I have never used within my practice until now. I’ve previously created one similar ring using this technique, which I will include in the application as a visual reference.
This ring is designed to be worn, but also to be contemplated. It is a tangible intersection of gold’s legacy in Victoria: its value, its violence, its histories, and our ongoing relationship with the land. This is a piece about place, memory, and contradiction: where beauty and destruction sit side by side. It asks us to consider the complex legacy of gold in Victoria, and what we choose to carry forward as a result of our march towards ‘progress’.