Mari Funaki was born in Matsue, Japan in 1950. She completed a Bachelor of Law in Japan before moving to Australia in 1979 to study at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, completing a Bachelor of Arts (Painting) in 1984, and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Gold and Silversmithing in 1993. Funaki has been an active jeweller, metalsmith, curator and gallery director: she established Gallery Funaki, which specialises in modern international jewellery, in Melbourne in 1995.

Funaki's three items of jewellery, Brooch, Gold ring and Clip brooch (Acc. nos 2000.126-128, respectively) are strikingly original; Funaki's work draws on a minimalist aesthetic influenced by Western modernism and Japanese cultural forms. Often presented in groupings or 'families', and in gold and blackened mild steel, Funaki's pieces reveal a meticulous attention to the potentialities of material and an acute sensitivity to proportion and scale.

Funaki, like many of her contemporaries, uses traditional gold and silversmithing techniques with non-traditional materials, thus divorcing her works from a standard reading and leading the viewer to enquire further into her intent. Her pieces evoke associations of exquisite, sharp folds of origami and the unnerving plates of insect armour. The precision and accuracy of these works suggests detailed studies and working drawings; however, for Funaki, the handling of the material itself plays a prominent role in the formation of the works. Funaki makes seamless joins in her work, which is difficult to achieve in mild steel. The burnish of the gold and the velvety surface of blackened metal soften the sharpness and hazardous potential of the flattened planes, while the secreted openings and oblique folds provide unexpected complexity.