03 Jul
2025
Over 2,000 boys were sent to Point Puer Boys Establishment in Van Diemen’s Land. This is their story.
03 Jul
The selection of motifs and themes range over the gamut of my work … but far from exhausts it, and ranges from sculpture and objets d’art, through jewellery statements, to the faceting of pearls and gemstones; all undertaken with the library of techniques which I have mastered over the decades…
-- Phill Mason
It is with deep sadness that we mourn the passing of Tasmanian jeweller Phill Mason.
Phill has countless accolades over the years. Not only did Phill exhibit, win awards and attend workshops all over the world, but he was President of the Crafts Council of Tasmania and also Salamanca Arts Centre, Vice President of the Crafts Council of Australia, national President of the Jewellers and Metalsmiths Group of Australia and a Foundation member of the Gold and Silversmiths Guild of Australia. Phill also taught jewellery design and fabrication at the Hobart College of Tafe for five years from 1987.
Born in Sydney, Phill had his first solo exhibition in Hobart at Handmark Gallery in 1986 when it was in Hampden Road Battery Point. This was also the year he set up Mason’s studio jewellers at the entrance to Galleria Salamanca. In 1995 he apprenticed his son Tyrus to work by his side.
Earlier this year Phill proposed that he would like to have an exhibition with Tyrus celebrating, 40 years, 40 awards, 40 pieces, a celebration of 4 decades of goldsmithing and gemstone faceting. This is taking place at Handmark Gallery from Friday 10 November - 4 December 2023.
