Emefa Cole’s jewellery is highly sculptural, with an appeal that is both visual and tactile. She is influenced by nature, but more as a force than for any naturalistic detail. She has written that her work ‘takes inspiration from the power of destruction, renewal and discovery in context of time and the elemental forces of nature’. Her Vulcan Series – from which this ring comes – is inspired by volcanic activity. With its bulbous shell and internal crater, it was first modelled in wax in one piece then cast in silver using the lost wax technique. The dark patination of its smooth, polished exterior contrasts with the rich softness of the gold leaf within. The ring was made in 2012 and was shown at Ghana Fashion and Design Week, Accra, the following year.

Emefa Cole (born Ghana, 1979) has a BA Hons in Jewellery and Silversmithing from the Sir John Cass School of Art, Media and design, London Metropolitan University, following which she took the 2012 Goldsmiths’ Company’s Getting Started programme. Her work was selected for the opening exhibition of the Goldsmiths’ Centre, London, in April that year. In 2020 (supported by the a-n) she worked with goldsmiths of the Asantehene in Kumasi, Ghana, learning traditional Asante casting techniques.