These pieces were made for an exhibition called Ozgold which was put together by the gold industry in Australia. 25 people would be chosen and each would be given one ounce of gold to make their piece. Submissions had to describe, with drawings, what we would make if accepted. I worked out how much sheet one ounce would be, realised it was way too much for only one piece so decided to make a pair of brooches. 

I was accepted into the show and this was the first time I had ever worked with this amount of gold before - I certainly had never used it for repoussé work! I was very nervous about stuffing it up so I made two silver pieces first as trials. That gave me the confidence to get on with making the gold ones. I wasn't familiar with how gold behaved when heated and nearly melted one of the pieces when I was soldering it - it was extremely nerve wracking! We had been told that the piece would be weighed to make sure we had used all of it, so I even melted down the scrap and made the findings from it, including the pins! 

I didn't win the $25,000 first prize, but it was a great show to be in, with the opportunity to work with gold in that way - something I certainly couldn't afford at the time. To be honest though, it didn't kill my love affair with silver - it's still my preferred metal!

These pieces are in the book Chasing and Repoussé by Nancy Megan Corwin
http://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Repoussé-Nancy-Megan-Corwin/dp/1929565321