A Symbolic Decorative Wall Plaque for the Sunyani Palace

Abstract

The gold/silver/coppersmithing industry is one of the longest established trades in Ghana. The industry offers employment to many people engaged in it and it plays a vital role in the socio-economic development of the nation. However the industry concentrates largely on the production of jewellery/filigree fashion accessories works like necklaces, anklets, tie pins, brooches etc. using precious metals like gold, silver and diamond and non-precious metals like cooper and brass to the neglect of fabrication of large articles like trophies and wall plaques which could also be a promising and rewarding trade. The idea of producing a wall plaque for the Sunyani palace in the BrongAhafo region came into mind after the research team had had some interactions with the chief, queen mother, some elders and few natives of the town. Investigations revealed that though the town’s emblem and the history surrounding how the town got its name ‘Sunyani’ revolves round a hunter and an elephant, in the area of artifact very little was known. It was in the light of this that the researchers decided to produce a wall plaque for the palace to be used to preserve the story surrounding the town to generations yet unborn as well as use it to create awareness about the need for the gold/silversmithing industry to venture into other viable smiting activities. The descriptive method of research under the qualitative method of research which uses interview and observation was used to gather, analyze and interpret data gathered. The purposive and simple random sampling technique was used to sample views from the interviewees and the face-to-to unstructured interview was used as data collection instrument.  Possible recommendations like creating more awareness among gold/silversmithing about the need to venture into other profitable smithing activities and the introduction of Metal Product Design into the curriculum right from J.H.S to the tertiary level among others have been suggested.

Keywords: Wall plaque, artifacts, embossing, chasing, annealing, modeling, repousse