By arts editor Helen Musa

With an adventurous exhibition of contemporary jewellery coming up in the atrium of Canberra Airport, Phoebe Porter seems to be looking to the future, but her artistic style is rooted in the past.

Born and bred in Canberra, Porter graduated from the gold and silversmithing workshop at the then ANU School of Art, where she studied under Johannes Kuhnen and Ragna Hansen.

Both were strongly influenced by the Bauhaus school and European Modernism, teaching her to think deeply about the materials she uses.

“They taught me a sort of minimalism in terms of the aesthetics of making jewellery, of paring back, a habit of not leaning into the decorative,” she tells me.

“I was taught to pare my work back to the necessary elements and to let the material influence me.”

Her work has been acquired for public collections, including the National Gallery and the Powerhouse Museum, and recognised with a Victorian Premier’s Design Mark.

Turning to her forthcoming exhibition, Phoebe Porter: Raw and Refined, a part of the Craft + Design Canberra Festival, she explains that she is working with naturally found specimens, using metal as it occurs in its pure form in nature.

Rather than working with metals that have been mined and processed, Porter uses them as they are found. Depending on their origins, they can look remarkably different, and some nuggets have crusted formations that are beautiful in their own right.

A line-up of three rings illustrates what Porter is exploring. One of the central pieces in Raw and Refined is a ring formed around a small gold nugget passed down to her by her grandfather, who found it while working as a surveyor in Papua New Guinea.

“It got me started. I’ve used the native gold but set it on an 18-carat yellow gold band, but in most cases for the bands, I’m using an alloy or derivative.”

Another ring features material from the Campo del Cielo, or Field of Heaven, meteorites found in northern Argentina. Porter has set the specimen on a stainless steel band, a material composed mostly of iron.

The third ring follows the natural contours of a copper specimen from Cloncurry in Queensland. Copper found elsewhere, including around Bourke, can develop a rich green patina, quite unlike the pink-gold appearance of the Cloncurry nugget.

“Working with mostly found objects, I’ve had to design carefully because of the need for a curve in a ring. I have to look carefully at the specimen to work out what would work best.”

In some pieces, Porter has used uncut Australian sapphires, which can resemble pieces of beach glass, while in others she has chosen faceted stones.

“I think this will be fascinating for audiences and allow them an insight into the process of making.”

She may be a veteran gold and silversmith, but she is no fossicker.

“I’ve collected my nuggets and objects over a long period of time. Some were inherited and some came from a range of gem dealers both in Australia and overseas.”

One of her favourite events is the Canberra Lapidary Club’s annual Rock Swap, where people travel to EPIC from around Australia to sell and trade fossils and nuggets. Porter laments that, with the closure of the Mineshaft in Civic, Canberra no longer has a gem merchant, apart from the club’s events.

She is excited about exhibiting at Canberra Airport, adjacent to Andrew Rogers’ bronze sculpture Unfurling, because of the opportunity to introduce her work to new viewers.

The location, in the departure lounge beyond security, is serendipitous. The showcase, designed by architects Guida Moseley Brown, is at eye level and to her, exactly the right scale for displaying small pieces of jewellery.

Raw and Refined, Canberra Airport departure lounge, until November 22. Phoebe Porter in Conversation with Dr Kevin Murray, Canberra Airport, November 12.

News all day, every day at CityNewsQBN.com.au.