This piece is part of the Royal College of Art Visiting Artists Collection. Every year from 1987 to 2006, while David Watkins was Professor of Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery at the RCA, he invited four jewellers and silversmiths from outside Britain to give a week-long masterclass. The artists brought diverse skills, aesthetics and approaches. The first call on their time was to interact closely with the students. In addition, although concentrating on their teaching and working in an unfamiliar studio, each artist generously made an object for the RCA's collection. The Royal College of Art Visiting Artists Collection, now transferred to the V&A, is a major document of international contemporary jewellery, a tribute both to the artists and to the vibrancy of the RCA as a teaching institution.

The fascination with gold never ceases. Rejected when the avant-garde was experimenting with alternative materials, gold returned to favour in the 1990s. Innovative concepts in treating gold were developed as never before.

Castello Hansen makes simple, minimal yet very expressive forms in gold. He selects alloys to create an intense tone, and the subtly treatment of the surfaces allow for a play of light and shade.

He states: 'I regard jewellery to be purely visual and tactile media defined by its own phenomenology and as such only capable of communicating symbolically'.

Hansen was trained as a goldsmith at Ole Lyngaard ApS Hellerup, in Denmark and graduated at the Royal College of Art, London. He was born in Denmark, but lives and works in Sweden.