After using a jewellers saw that is 0.25mm wide to hand saw around 200m of steel, I linked the cut pieces back together again to form a portrait of the headquarters of the biggest iron ore producer in Australia.

To make the portrait, and the 4,600 tears that emanated from it, I cobbled together four separate sheets of recycled corrugated steel.

One was swallowed practically whole, while the others left a few offcuts. Some of them were huge sheets with all corrugations intact, and others were small, even dainty. Jewellery scale. The very limited edition Juukan Tears – Offcuts jewellery works are made from these.

They are as they fell from the bench, with small jewellery fittings added to make thirty unique and eminently wearable pieces of art.

Melissa Cameron

This series and other stainless steel jewellery will be available for sale throughout the exhibition.

Celebration Drinks - Saturday 30 April, 2-4pm

Melissa’s work, ‘Juukan Tears’, will also be shown in the 2022 North Sydney Art Prize, 14-29 May 2022