In March next year, Objectspace will install their latest Courtyard Plinth Project, bringing to life the winning submission from the Tāmaki Makaurau-based jewellers’ collective Workshop6.

The installation (like the jeweller’s command of their craft) steadily accumulates from the starting point of the copper ring. Copper is among the most forgiving materials for the beginner jewellery maker—taking to a shape quickly, lasting for a long time, and costing very little—and Workshop6 has accumulated many over the years it has operated introductory jewellery classes from its Grey Lynn studio.

The tradition of the jewellers’ collective is strong in Aotearoa, where Workshop6, is only one of many such artist groups who support one another’s practices and facilitate newcomers. Collecting and displaying all of these rings, each one of them etched with a unique pattern made by its maker or impressed with their fingerprints, is a tribute to the skills and materials a jeweller uses, but also to the space of the workshop, where skills are shared and many a maker is made. Over the summer, the collective—led by Anna Wallis, Mia Straka and Cheryl Sills— will host ring-making classes, inviting participants to make a copper ring to add to the final commission. The first takes place on Saturday 9 December, with at least four more set to take place before the project’s installation on 15 March.