Aden Wylie is an apprentice with Melbourne-based jewellers MDT Design. He joins a collective of master jewellers with an impressive record of award wins, numerous JAA Award wins amongst them. So it is no surprise that Aden’s work attracted the attention of the judges in this year’s competition.
My inspiration for this piece came from my love for the night sky. I love a dark night full of stars and I used constellations as a way to incorporate that into my work. In my piece, the gold ball signifies a bright orange moon and the platinum sphere was used to have the piece spin to see all the different constellations around the ball.
I saw the JAA awards as a learning opportunity. Entering was definitely a good chance to try new techniques and different ways to get to the end product. It also taught me about my work and what style I enjoy making, and winning the award did very much give me more confidence in my abilities. I am very lucky to have won this award and cannot describe the feeling. I believe it will definitely impact my career path in the future and I am looking forward to seeing what opportunities come from this experience.
I entered the awards to push my skills and abilities making jewellery and to try designing my own piece which I could interpret some of my personality into. I really recommend entering the award to other jewellers and apprentices. It was a lot of fun coming up with a design and it is a great way to showcase your personal style of jewellery.
I would very much like to thank Greg and Nick for taking me on as an apprentice and giving me the opportunity to create my own piece in the JAA Awards. Also, a big thank you to everyone else at MDT Design.