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Veins of Gold (2017)

Restored Antique porcelain blue and white serving platter that belonged to my Nana, ceramic gold miner figurine, epoxy resin, gold enamel paint and gold powder in the Japanese kintsugi technique

"Veins of Gold" features in the exhibition "The Extractive Frontier:Mining for Art"

http://castlemainefestival.com.au/events/the-extractive-frontier-mining-for-art/

Utilising her considerable skills as a ceramics restorer, Penny has created this new work for the Castlemaine State Festival.

Using the ancient Japanese restoration technique of kintsugi, Penny has repaired a large antique soft paste porcelain blue and white serving dish, then added a ceramic gold miner figurine panning for veins of gold, alluding to Castlemaine's rich gold mining history.

Kintsugi - "Golden joinery" is the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics, and can be linked to the Japanese philosophy of wabi sabi, an embracing of flawed or imperfect objects.

It treats the breakage and repair as part of the history of the object, rather than something to disguise.