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.

In common with artists working across a wide range of media, jewellers may set out to convey or provoke human emotions. Their works reaches beyond the figurative to the philosophical.

Bernhard Schobinger's cuff bracelet, with its gashed and scarred surface and bruise-like patination, conveys violence with a chilling intensity, alluding to its title 'Kamikase'. It was forged with a hand axe from a 1 kg ingot of silver.

Schobinger began his career in Zurich with geometric-style jewellery, but early on he challenged the craft of goldsmithing. By the late seventies he made jewellery with found objects, which he still uses today. These objects are often from everyday life and in his work convey a deeper meaning. The messages are often highly critical of society today, historical or current political events, and issues of our times. His work is generally sculptural and provocative.