‘Cydonia Oblonga’, 2023

Patrick has been exploring the coining process and received a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust grant to study with Archivio Negroni in Milan. Patrick aims to explore the aesthetic and physical effects unique to this Process. It is a technique that applauds metals distinctive and sometimes paradoxical material qualities. The malleability of metal is exploited by the impression of microscopic detail, impossible by any other method. During the coining process, the metal is also hardened, resulting in a tough, durable metal that lends itself to jewellery and objects.

The medals’ design began with drawings of a Quince tree. The drawings were layered onto wood and thick card, and these shapes were then cut out and used to collage the final designs. The aim was to investigate certain effects that made the most of the coining process, areas of high graphic detail and others of sculpted relief. The angle of the cutting tool used to create the die needs to be shallow enough to allow the medal to be removed from the die once pressed. Too sharp an angle, and the medal could become stuck. This angle impacts the design, but also contributes to the processes unique aesthetic, something to be utilised and celebrated.