This collaborative project between the National Museum and the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, explores the craft and cultural history of cast weights made by the Akan peoples of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire for measuring gold dust. 

Second-year students of Jewellery & Objects at NCAD made facsimile copies of selected weights from the Museum’s Ethnographic collection to develop their understanding of the lost-wax modelling techniques that were used by the Akan peoples. 

Inspired by the Akan’s use of local proverbs in their figurative weights, the students selected proverbs from their own cultural context to inform their designs, which they cast in Sterling Silver. ​

The facsimile copies created by the students now form part of the Museum’s ‘handling collection’.