Acacia Oraria thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Acacia Oraria

Bowl
2007 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Julie Blyfield is one of Australia's leading silversmiths and jewellers. Her work has kept pace with current investigations of location, identity and cross cultural understandings, and involves an innovative and sustained engagement with traditional jewellery and metalwork techniques.

Blyfield's work has rich intellectual layers and explores many aspects of Australian flora as well as aspects of Australian history, including encounters with Aboriginal culture, the early settlement of the city of Adelaide and migration. She also incorporates metalwork traditions for all over the world that she has learnt through various mentors, through independent study and experimentation and investigations in European museum collections.

The jewellery and objects Julie Blyfield has produced over the last twenty years are absolutely contemporary and fresh, while carrying resonant echoes from the past. Through its sensitive making, her work strongly asserts the importance of respect for time, place and belonging, combined with a finely tuned mixture of restraint and playfulness.

Julie Blyfield is widely respected maker, not only throughout Australia but increasingly across Europe as well.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleAcacia Oraria (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Fine silver
Brief description
"Acacia Oraria", silver, (999), raised and chased, designed and made by Julie Blyfield, Gray Street Workshop, Adelaide, Australia, 2007
Physical description
Bowl of fine silver, rising from a narrow circular base, the sides flare outwards, everted lip, the whole vessel chased completely with a leaf design.
Dimensions
  • Height: 12.7cm
  • Diameter: 13.9cm
Credit line
Supported by the Friends of the V&A
Object history
Purchased at Collect, V&A, 2008 from Galerie Ra, Amsterdam
Subject depicted
Summary
Julie Blyfield is one of Australia's leading silversmiths and jewellers. Her work has kept pace with current investigations of location, identity and cross cultural understandings, and involves an innovative and sustained engagement with traditional jewellery and metalwork techniques.

Blyfield's work has rich intellectual layers and explores many aspects of Australian flora as well as aspects of Australian history, including encounters with Aboriginal culture, the early settlement of the city of Adelaide and migration. She also incorporates metalwork traditions for all over the world that she has learnt through various mentors, through independent study and experimentation and investigations in European museum collections.

The jewellery and objects Julie Blyfield has produced over the last twenty years are absolutely contemporary and fresh, while carrying resonant echoes from the past. Through its sensitive making, her work strongly asserts the importance of respect for time, place and belonging, combined with a finely tuned mixture of restraint and playfulness.

Julie Blyfield is widely respected maker, not only throughout Australia but increasingly across Europe as well.
Bibliographic reference
Stephanie Radok and Dick Richards, Julie Blyfield, Adelaide, Wakefield Press, 2007. pp.102-104. ill. ISBN. 978-1-86254-763-6
Collection
Accession number
M.12-2008

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
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