In a career spanning five decades, Robert Baines is one of Australia’s leading gold and silversmiths. Robert’s work can be found in all major public galleries in Australia, as well as internationally in significant museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

The Australia Design Centre made Robert Baines a Living Treasure: Master of Australian Craft in 2010.

He makes intricately constructed jewellery and large-scale, sculptural, complex wire works that often combine gold and silver with plastic and powder-coated elements.

In this episode, you’ll hear about how Robert researched high Classical Greek gold jewellery and remade it using those 2000-year-old techniques, how the colour takes on many meanings in his jewellery, and how a chance meeting in a gallery changed everything.

Listen to the episode here.