Patrick Davison (born 1988)

After exhibiting at Goldsmiths’ Fair in 2019, Patrick Davison was commissioned to produce a small hand-held hinged box featuring his mixed metal micromosaic technique. The commission included training with specialist box-maker Ray Walton, which helped Davison achieve the astounding precision evident in the finished piece. The box is constructed from eight separate panels, each formed of tiny square micromosaic tiles. To produce the tiles Davison soldered together two 1mm sheets of different metals; the resulting sandwich was rolled back to a 1mm thickness and formed into square profile tube; four square tubes were soldered together into a cube and drawn down again into thinner square tube; this was repeated until 8 square tubes were soldered together, forming a cuboid bar which was sliced into square tiles. The result of this painstaking and time-consuming process is astonishing. The different metals compress at different rates, and the completed tiles are a glorious small-scale riot of fluid shapes of varied colours, all neatly contained within a silver geometric grid.   

Davison’s experimental outlook and training has a European focus; the mixed metal aesthetic of Paduan goldsmith Stefano Marchetti is a major influence. He responds to the correctness of the Italian goldsmithing tradition and is inspired by Venetian Renaissance glassmaking, especially the millefiori technique which he imitates in metals. The completed box is delicate and precious. Its correct proportions lend it a deceptive simplicity; its technical ambition is balanced by its modest form. Davison talks of the need to pare a piece down so that it finds its balance. He credits the success of the box to the intense attention to detail paid at every step of its design and production.   

FP