To mark the 100 day countdown to the opening ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, due to be held at Celtic Park on the 23rd July, a special event was held at Glasgow’s iconic Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum last week.
The event hosted by Commonwealth gold 400m runner Iwan Thomas and featuring Scotland’s legendary sprinter Allan Wells who won the 100m title at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, saw the unveiling of the spectacular awards designed by internationally renowned silversmithand medal designer Jonathan Boyd.
Glasgow based Boyd who is an artist and lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art, worked with a team of 11 specialists using digital technologies as well as hand-crafted skills and traditional metalworking techniques to craft the abstract and contemporary medals. Designed with elegant interlocking circles representing the motion of sport and with metalwork representing the city’s industrial heritage Boyd’s open latticework medals are not fully complete until they are hung over the winning countries colours forming the perfect background for his design.
The unique objects made of silver gilt (for the gold), silver and bronze – the traditional make-up of medals at Commonwealth and Olympic events and weighing in at 100g each, will be awarded to more than 1,380 victorious athletes at 261 medal ceremonies seen by a global audience of 1.5 billion during the summer games.
He said: “There’s blood, sweat and tears in those medals, just like the way athletes train and go through hell and back to get there, we’ve gone through the same.”
Each magnificent medal uniquely crafted to celebrate the athlete’s individual achievement, takes 3 days to be made, and are the ultimate reward for all the years training and dedication that these incredible sports men and women go through.
Written by Premier Trophies’ PR & Marketing Manager Hannah White