Silver Shows Off

Originally published by Lapidary Journal, November 2000
by Suzanne Wade

For contemporary jewelry designers, silver has a lot more going for it than simple economics.

TRADITIONAL SILVER
Tradition also inspires the silver pieces created by Jennifer Bowie of Metalwerx in Woburn, Massachusetts. “Silver is the traditional metal of ritual object making,” she explains. “I suppose if you lived in ancient Thracia, you made the object out of gold. But particularly with Jewish ritual objects, there's a tremendous amount of silver.”

A collection of sterling silver rings by Jennifer Bowie. Bowie finds that silver attracts buyers who aren't afraid to experiment. Photo: R. Diamante.

Bowie's work ranges from contemporary ring designs to traditional Jewish ritual objects. Although she occasionally works with copper and brass, silver remains her chosen metal. “There's something about silver that reminds me of moonlight,” she says. “Copper has its place and brass has its place, but there's something shimmery and flowing like water [about silver]. It gives [the piece] a sort of peaceful, moonlit quality that I really like.”

She concentrates on fabricating techniques such as piercing and forming. “I love that Bonny Doon press,” she exclaims. “I think some of it has to do with my training. I was trained in a lot of traditional fabricating techniques - cutting, piercing, construction - and that just has to do with my experience thus far. I'm learning new techniques, but metalsmithing is 5,000 years old and you're never going to learn every aspect of it. I tend to stick with what I'm good at, and I'm pretty good at fabricating because that's the way my mind works.”

She tends to stick with silver for her ritual objects for equally practical reasons. “Gold is not well suited for certain kinds of functional objects: it's just too soft. Gold chalices are beautiful, but you'd beat [one] up in a month,” she says. “Silver is much better suited for functional work, everyday-type objects, objects that are going to see real use.”

For her jewelry, silver keeps her items in a price range most of her customers can afford. “You can make something very beautiful and still keep it below the skyline in terms of pricing,” she explains. “It does attract somewhat of an unusual crowd - the people who are looking for something a little unusual aren't afraid to look at silver. People who want the status quo go to the jewelry store in the mall.

Jennifer Bowie's All the Bells and Whistle , of sterling silver. Photo: R. Diamante.

“For all its flash, silver is an unassuming metal,” she adds, “because it's inexpensive, it's readily available, and it's unpretentious. Platinum is the same color, but please . . . platinum is all about the rare, the unexpected, the perception of value. Silver is worth something, and it knows it, but it's not snotty. Silver can be magnificent and, at the same time, be completely humble.”

TEXTURE & COLOR
Bowie's partner, Karen Christians, also uses silver as her primary palette, combining the white metal with a variety of resins and natural substances. For example, her line of tea pins combines silver with actual tea leaves for a surprising variety of color.

Karen Christians finds that silver's simplicity works well with the natural objects she uses in her designs. Tea Leaves brooch, of sterling silver, tea leaves, and hops. 3" x 1/2" x 1". Photo: Frank Kavanagh.

“The silver makes a nice color impact against the resin-filled tea. The earth tones work well with silver,” she says. “Silver has a coolness, and there are particular tones that go with it. I think a lot of what makes Southwestern jewelry really sing is the blues and greens and turquoise that really match with the coolness of silver.”

Christians also likes the simplicity and appearance of creating a matte finish on silver. “I do a lot of roller printing in my work,” she explains. “By raising a bed of fine silver on the top, I can do just a brass brush finish on it. I've yet to really polish those pieces: treated correctly they just polish once and that's that, and there's something about that texture that really talks to me.”

As a teacher of jewelry making, she also appreciates silver's metalsmithing qualities. “Silver is a very forgiving metal,” she says. “It's easy to cut, easy to file - it's a softer metal, especially sterling - it's just nice. It polishes nicely when you polish it, files nice, and just has a nice feel in my hand.”

But although silver can be a delight to work with, it can also challenge your metalsmithing skills, she says. “Silver makes a technically better metalsmith because of the quirky temperatures, because of how things flow and connect and go together,” she says. “[Silver also] allows you to go larger, to have more volume than gold, and that makes you a good all-around metalsmith. You're not confined to doing very small jewelry.”

In her own work, Christians is moving more and more towards gold, primarily because it's easier to get a price commensurate with the labor involved in a gold piece. But when salability ceases to be a factor, silver continues to be the metal she reaches for. “For my sculptural work, there is no way I would do that in gold,” she says. “Silver is the correct material - it gives the right luster, and the right malleability that I need.”

Freud's Dream VII , by Karen Christians, of sterling silver, 14K gold, and pearls. 4" x 1/2" x 1". Photo: Frank Kavanagh.

BIO: Suzanne Wade has been writing about gems and jewelry for more than a decade. In that time, she has made a half dozen good solder joints, a pair of earrings, and one slightly lopsided ring, which impressed no one but her six-year-old son. Fortunately, all agree that she does a better job writing about jewelry than she does making it.