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Michael Hofmeyer

  • MHGOLD
  • Jewellery maker
  • Padua, Italy
  • Master Artisan
Michael Hofmeyer Jewellery maker
Contact
Italian, English
Hours:
By appointment only
Phone:
+39 3921832191
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Jewellery with a cause

  • • Michael combines traditional Italian goldsmithing with his own artistic vision
  • • Environmental concerns inspire many of his designs
  • • His work steps into the realm of wearable art

Michael Hofmeyer is an Australian jewellery maker currently living and working in Padova. He completed an apprenticeship in Australia, followed by a period studying classical goldsmithing in Florence. In 1996, he established an independent workshop, MHGOLD, that he ran for 18 years. Although he lives in Italy, Michael does not settle for a conventional, commercial take on jewellery. His work features a mix of diverse materials and techniques: in addition to using a variety of goldsmithing techniques including repoussé and chasing for fine detailing and texturing, he recently started working with enamel as well. His work is largely inspired by nature and particularly by the special bond he has with the landscapes and environmental concerns of his home country, Australia.

Read the full interview

Works

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Flower of the Sea

This brooch is made up of an outer free-formed circular copper mesh and a central section formed from copper sheet resting on and supported by a sterling silver base. The copper mesh is enamelled with underfired blue opaque enamel and the central section is enamelled with blue transparent enamel.

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Floating

These earrings were hand formed by folding two parts: a textured inner section contrasting with an outer polished section. The free form natural diamond slices rest on concave argentium silver settings. 18 carat gold wires and lower half disc support the whole. The design conveys lightness, with diamonds as if suspended in space.

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Water rock pools

This earring design conveys the impression of water rock pools. Sliced free-form diamonds represent still water and the textured sterling silver represents a natural rock pool. The silver has been worked and textured by repoussé and chasing sheet silver. The surface finish is unpolished mat white achieved by a depletion gilding technique where a layer of fine pure silver is raised and deposited onto the surface. 18 carat yellow gold beads hold the diamonds.

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Atolls

These earrings relate to the idea of natural coral atolls. Blue transparent enamel forms an outer defined border, and finer layering of green transparent enamel was fired onto the silver mesh. The earrings are part of a series of pieces designed around the theme of fragility and the natural world, in this case about coral atolls and reefs under stress due to climate change.

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Brooch

Brooch is part of a project entitled Fragility, inspired by the Great Barrier Reef. It is a series of work that uses enamelling to express the ephemeral beauty and richness of this hidden world, very vulnerable in our times of climate change. Hand formed in copper mesh, then worked with enamels in a less traditional and more experimental in approach, the brooch's enamelled work rests on walnut wood (natural and ebonized), attached to a sterling silver frame.

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