A Jewellery and silversmithing graduate from London Metropolitan University, London based jewellery artist Emefa Cole explores the transformative power of time to create bold, distinctive body adornment for the true individual, using SMO gold (Single Mine Origin) and recycled silver of known provenance in all her pieces.
It was during her childhood years spent in Ghana that Emefa developed her fascination with what lays beneath the surface. As a child, local folklore of people finding gold nuggets washed up from the soil after heavy rains captivated her imagination. Today,using traditional lost wax-casting techniques, Emefa layers various metals including gold, silver, rhodium and oxidised bronze with gold leaf tocreate pieces that capture the beauty of destructionthrough a natural peeling process that unveilsdifferent layers of precious metal over time.
Classic collections such as ‘Vulcan’ celebrate the magnificence of volcanoes, capturing their stunning range of alluring colours, textures and tones. ‘Erosion’takes inspiration from the sculpted sand dunes of the Sahara to the chiselled ice of Antarcticaand seeks to honour this continual process that sculptsthe Earth, unveiling an otherwise concealed world.
In 2020, Emefa Cole reached new levels of cultural significance and recognition with the V&A museum in London acquiring a Vulcan ring as part of their permanent jewellery exhibition, the journey of which was documented on the BBC 2 series ‘Secrets of the Museum’. This was quickly followed by another milestone with The Goldsmith Company acquiring a Caldera ring for the Company Collection in 2021.