Teaspoons and Trinkets is a display of gold dust spoons, handcrafted in copper by pupils at Langtree School, Reading, in 2019.

The students’ spoon designs were inspired by their visit to the Pitt Rivers Museum, where they considered West African metalworking techniques, such as chasing, repoussé and wax casting processes, while also looking at symbols, patterns and meanings in Adinkra and Ashanti cultures.

Through workshops in both the museum and at school, students learned about European entanglement of art and trade in West Africa. Students held objects which reinform belief about non-Western metalworking, sculpture, and the complexity of historical relationships with the West.

Jewellery artist Kate Coker supported the students to create gold dust spoons which speak of their ideas of identity, how they measure value, and universal uses of symbolism to communicate shared ideas.