Australia speaks in ‘green and gold’
Australia’s official national colours, green and gold, were proclaimed on 19 April 1984 by the then Governor-General, Ninian M Stephen. The Government’s decision was prompted by widespread community support for official recognition of the time-honoured green and gold.
Green and gold have strong environmental connections with gold symbolizing images of beaches, mineral wealth and grain while green symbolizes forests, gum tress and paddocks in our Australian landscape.
Green and gold are also the colours of our national floral emblem, the golden wattle. Acacia pycnantha (golden wattle) enjoyed popular acceptance as Australia's national flower for much of this century but it was not proclaimed as the national floral emblem until 1988, the year of Australia's bicentenary.
The use of the national colours is unrestricted in any way and totally free from copyright issues. Green and gold may be used in any design or arrangement of colour, emphasising the green or gold. The boxing kangaroo flag is one popular interpretation of green and gold.
My interpretation of ‘Australia speaks’ is based around our national colours and includes our floral emblem, the wattle. The work consists of three individual pieces which have been designed as one cbody of work and work together to resemble the medals awarded in various sporting achievements, particularly those won at the Olympic Games.
The focal beads are primarily designed using the Mokume Gane technique. This technique is very seductive and can be used to produce imagery which is often totally unpredictable while still being interesting. The pieces in this body of work are unable to be reproduced again. Using this technique I have been able to
achieve what seems to be a textured look for each focal but in reality has a smooth and shiny surface. Small round polymer spacers have been included with each piece to further reinforce the roundness and colour of each wattle blossom.
No comments:
Post a Comment