Ed Lay is a jeweler and metalsmith working in the San Francisco Bay Area. Having studied jewelry and sculpture for over a decade, Lay’s work explores a range of metal working techniques and issues around the ethical sourcing of these metals.
Lay’s Sourcing piece is a meditation on jewelry material choices. The setting which has been created from common welded structural steel, has been allowed to rust in order to contrast with the properties of gold that make it desirable. A thousand to one ratio of rock to gold is a reference to the profligate nature of gold extraction. The fraction of gold however, is from one of the first batches of Fairmined gold.