This ring shows Johanna Dahm’s fascination with closed cycle casting, a traditional technique which developed independently amongst Ashanti goldsmiths in Ghana, Africa and Dokra goldsmiths in Orissa, India. Dahm travelled to both regions to master the technique, learning from local craftsmen while on sabbatical from Pforzheim University where she was a professor.

For the ‘fast ASHANTI’ series of rings the casting process was shortened by one stage: Dahm modelled the form as a void straight into the clay rather than as a wax model to be encased in the clay then melted out. As she describes: ‘the control over the design is limited. It can be seen as a blind process, playing with “chance” trying to guide it as far as this is possible. The unique result is only visible when the clay casing has been broken open after firing and casting. The transformation happens in the invisible, inside the closed clay casing and the burning coals in the furnace’. The surface texture of the ring is therefore also created from the clay, being an impression of the earth from which the mould was made.

This ring is one of forty-five pieces of jewellery given to the V&A from the collection of the late Louise Klapisch.