Noel Murphy
Gold & Silversmith
About Noel
I have been producing one-off pieces and series of Jewellery and objects since completing a Graduate Diploma in Gold and Silversmithing at RMIT. My work is represented at the NGV, the NGWA as well as numerous public and private collections in Australia and overseas.
I use precious and non-precious metals and materials in my work and I have developed proficiency in the techniques of marrying metals (lamination) and more recently the Japanese technique of Mokume Gane.
Besides working on my exhibition pieces I accept commissions to design and produce individual, one-off pieces.
Latest Work
overview
Having spent considerable time in Italy, where I developed a deep love of everything Italian, and while restoring a 13th Century house in the Castello overlooking Lake Bolsena, in Lazio, I became interested in Roman and Byzantine Mosaics with Ravenna becoming my personal place of pilgrimage.
In my latest series of work I utilise, as a three dimensional ‘canvas’, the cube, into which I incorporate areas of Mokume Gane and fragmentary mosaic elements representative of both Roman and Byzantine mosaics. I have titled the series ‘Fossils from the Future’. The imperviousness of gold, glass and stone used in these tesserae is the inspiration for my ‘Fossil’ series.
Gallery
Here, my Gallery includes examples from my ‘Wounds’ series of pendants. The inspiration for these pieces arose from my fascination with what lies beneath. The designs represent a surface, interesting and beautiful in its own right, while revealing a starkly different inner core or layer. Much as a confronting wound on flesh reveals what lies beneath the beautiful skin veneer.
Wounds
Series of pendants, in sterling silver, 9ct gold, brass, copper, gilding metal, nickel silver and acrylic.
Examples of some of my more conventional jewellery designs are also shown.
