Norman Creighton | Gold and Silversmith | Jeweller and Metalworker

Norman Creighton was born in Maffra, Victoria in 1943, attending Boisdale Consolidated School and Maffra High School where an interest in art and metalwork began.

He trained as an art and craft teacher at Melbourne Teachers College and Prahran Technical College and taught at Sunbury, Merrilands and Fawkner High Schools.

Creighton undertook night classes at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in gold and silversmithing, metalwork and jewellery making. He completed the Associate Diploma and the Fellowship Diploma of Art (Gold and Silversmithing).

In 1970 he commenced teaching at Melbourne Teachers College. He also established a home studio assisted by an Australia Council Grant for crafts and jewellery workshop equipment.

In 1983 Creighton became Head of the Art School at Gippsland College of Advanced Education which amalgamated with Monash University in 1990. Creighton was appointed Professor and Head of the School of Art and Design. He retired in 1999.

From 1974 Creighton exhibited jewellery referencing geometric and architectural forms. Later he developed mounted landscape images using a wide range of materials. The last work made by Norman Creighton in 1988 was the Bicentennial Emu Egg Centrepiece. His work was collected by galleries and private collectors.

Early Life at “Strathavon”, the Creighton home near Maffra, Victoria

“John McMillan, who after going from the Isle of Skye to Nova Scotia with his family, later came to Gippsland in 1857 and selected “Strathavon” of 1280 acres on the west side of the Avon River. The homestead was built by John McMillan from bricks made on the property, and other materials having been brought out from Nova Scotia. The windows of the house are hand-made glass, and still to be seen today are the tuckpointing on the bricks. A staircase leads to the attic which, until recently, had the original hessian and paper walls. Underneath the house is a large cellar with a brick floor.

John McMillan died in 1882 and most of the property was sold in 1880 except 100 acres and the homestead. His son Alex McMillan took over the property and later sold it to John E. Creighton in 1918. His son Harold Creighton and his family reside there today.”
“Is Emu on the Menu: Historical  Homesteads and Recipes of Gippsland”, first printed in 1965, pp 58. The property was sold in 1995.

Home Studio and Family Life

Teaching Life

Norman teaching at the jewellery workshop organised, along with workshops in a number of crafts, by the Crafts Council of South Australia. The workshops were held at the Tatachilla Winery in Tatachilla, South of Adelaide South Australia.

“Summer schools gave often isolated practitioners an opportunity to work with professional craftspeople and teachers in an intensive practical, theoretical - and social - experience. Melbourne jeweller and metalsmith Norman Creighton (leaning over the table) tutors at the Tatachilla summer school in South Australia in the late 1970s.”

“The Crafts Movement in Australia: A History” by Grace Cochrane (pp 225)

A Letter to Katrina | Keep Looking for Why
A letter to a Year 12 art student who questions for an HSC (Higher School Certificate) assignment on “aims and qualities of an artist’s exhibit in a public gallery”.
CLICK TO OPEN LETTER

Exhibition Life

“The present exhibition consists of eight beautifully sculptured relief forms constructed by designer/silversmith Norman Creighton. He has used the structural and visual qualities of gold, stainless steel, titanium, polyester laminate, acrylic, and sterling silver to express his philosophy of man and the environment.
Initially a silversmith and creative jeweller, Norman Creighton began exploring the versatile potential of metals and plastics some two years ago and uses jewellery design techniques to create precious objects with a difference, and of great sophistication, without destroying the simplicity of his basic philosophies of man and nature.

Inspiration for this exhibition comes from the environment around us - water, hills, and sky, man’s need for shelter, etc. The constructions are accompanied by sensitive photographs of the areas which inspired the work and visually complement each other.

Norman Creighton, who has exhibited all over Australia, is widely recognised as one of Australia’s top silversmiths and is currently teaching at Melbourne State College. He is represented in both public and private collections in Australia and overseas and has been invited, with two other jewellers, to exhibit in London later this year.
This exhibition is a must for those people, not only interested in jewellery as an art form and/or contemporary design, but for all who care about the artist-craftsman and their experimenting in their constant search for originality and a high standard of craftsmanship.
“Landscape Images” is one of the most excitingly different exhibitions we have had in the Gallery for some time, and Norman Creighton has achieved, in his work, and intellectual and visual challenge. Several of the exhibits are for sale.” - Pam Gullifer, Director Ararat Gallery

Exhibited: “Gippsland Images”
Sale Regional Arts Centre, February 1976
Exhibition opened by Mr. John Leslie, Member of the Advisory Committee, Victorian Ministry for the Arts

Wall Panel
“High Plains”
Detail: C 1975
Silver and acrylic on mount board.
The hut is fabricated and formed element fixed to the mount board

Collection. Gippsland Art Gallery. Purchased 1976

Awards and Recognition