Virginia Sprague Australia
The Edge of the World, Tasmania brooch
Piece created for Challenge 2023 Jewelry and Travel (maximum price 150€)
Materials silver, 22ct gold leaf, 14ct gold dust, steel
Size 70x25x10mm
Virginia travels widely - always with a focus on exploring natural environments that are new and unfamiliar. In these places - suffused with different forms, textures, colours, light - Virginia interrogates her own connection to the natural world and finds the moments of creative reflection that shape and guide her work. Virginia uses a range of techniques (including ferric nitrate etching, surface enrichment, keum boo, oxidisation and gold plating) to explore these ideas, and to position the notion of beauty within natural cycles of life and decay. Lightly corroded, almost white surfaces slip into browns and golds and blacks, creating striking contrasts and unpredictable (dis)colorations. The selected brooches were inspired by recent travels in the wilderness areas of Tasmania, Australia.
[photos: Brenton McGeachie]
