The work consists of nine enamel panels, each featuring 999 fine silver cloisonne on pure silver and 24k gold foils under transparent enamels, and set in a 615mm diameter nickel-plated 10swg copper base. The base is fitted with two removable nickel-plated hemispherical bowls. The panel-retaining walls of 6.3mm square copper bar were cut, bent, and fastened to the base with brass screws and the assembly hand-finished. The bowls were spun from 14 swg copper sheet, the three components mirror-finished and nickel plated.

The sacred (as opposed to functional), requirements of the design brief - twin themes depicting on the one hand the Creation (`Order out of Chaos') and on the other the Resurrection - were addressed in the following fashion:

Apart from the symbolism of Unity encompassing Duality summing as Trinity, the circular table containing the two smaller but equally dominant highly-polished bowls (each acting as a hemispherical mirror) in tension with one another allowed the physical separation of the design field into two separate but connected areas of colour - one (the Resurrection side) predominantly red/purple, the other (the Creation side) mainly blue/green - each side contains in some amount all the transparent colours present in the other.

Duality was addressed pictorially by presenting the Resurrection as a strong, centrally-focused group of formal symmetrical figures, and the Creation as a softer, asymmetric `organic' picture (which is to be read conventionally from Left to Right). More specifically, the Resurrection side is an expanded double vesica piscis framing a radiant cross partially eclipsing conjoined radiant sun and moon figures in gold and silver, which overlap to form the vesicas. This block of integrated figures is the source of further radiation which reaches to all the boundaries of its universe.

The `Creation' side overtly depicts various marine organisms and on that level requires no explanation - on a symbolic level however, the dark protean mass on the far left metamorphoses into the bright kelp forms in the central left - from the centre the kelp leads via the Fish into the sheltering anemone tentacles which become the rays of the Sun in the far right hand corner - `Order out of Chaos'.  The Dolphin (salvation) and Fish emerge from the Darkness and move through the encompassing Sea towards the haven of the Light. One Fish seeks shelter in the Rock. The quotation in the circumsection overlies a gradation of colour from Dark to Light. The graded colour bridge between the two distinctly-different halves represents the journey from birth to earthly death.

The designs were realized in enamel using the traditional cloisonne technique for the Resurrection side and a combination of cloisonne, silver repousse and camieu techniques for the Creation. Firstly, a hard white enamel was fired to the front of the copper bases. Next a heavy layer of the same material as a counter-enamel was applied to the back and fired. These operations were repeated to provide an even starting point. Sheets of 999 silver foil were fired onto the bases and a layer of silver flux fired over the foils with, in the case of the Creation panels, some distant details incorporated in the flux in opaque glass.

The resulting surfaces were ground flat and for the Creation panels the background seascape was begun by the addition of wet-charged opaque enamels to selected areas. The pieces were fired and for the Resurrection panels a further addition of 999 silver foil under clear silver flux was made to all faces. They were again fired, reground, and the 999 silver wirework, (previously formed from 0.15 x 1mm rectangular silver strip) was laid out on the faces, dusted with a clear silver flux and fired just to the softening point of the glass.

The surface was ground to level the wirework,  24K gold foil was inlaid into various areas, more silver flux applied, and the pieces refired. The faces were reground. Using the traditional wet-inlay method the addition of transparent (in the case of the Resurrection side) and transparent and opaque (for the Creation side) enamels was commenced. (The wet-inlay technique sees finely-ground enamels suspended in an aqueous organic binder packed into the spaces between the wires or cloisons using various implements).

The piece was dried, fired, and the surface re-ground. These operations were repeated several times to establish background depth and `roundness' in the Creation subjects and to build up the overall glass thickness. Transparent and opalescent enamels were successively overlaid in various areas, the faces reground, repairs made as required, and final firings undertaken.

The panels were shaped by hand and machine to fit their place in the mosaic, given a final burnishing by hand and  machine, and bonded to the base with a silicon adhesive.  After curing of the underlying silicon the edges of the panels were sealed with the same material to prevent water entry between the panels and the base plate, the assembly was cleaned with turpentine, polished with Brasso, and glued to the top of the font at several points with thin daubs of a solvent-release contact adhesive.

DESIGNED & MADE BY ALLAN BRUCE HEYWOOD.

SKIPTON  AUSTRALIA