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Sometimes ideas just come along at the right time. There can be a feeling in the air that a project is right and should be done. As many of you know I’m very interested in supporting modern silversmithing and have featured many fine silversmiths in J-dex. Most recently out of a conversation with the silversmith Brett Payne came the Idea of a ‘British Silver Week’.
This happened during the International Jewellery London show in Earls Court and by happenchance a number of people I needed to talk to passed through during those few days. Within a very short time I had agreements in principal from the important trade organisations and a number of companies that this was a good idea and they would support us.
But what truly amazed me, and gave us the greatest boost, was the reaction of the exhibitions director of the Goldsmiths’ Company, Paul Dyson. He encouraged me to apply for a day at the Hall as a launch event and within a few weeks I had a letter from the Clerk: we had our venue and funding from the Goldsmiths’ Company for the launch of British Silver Week, on the 9th June 2008. They have also become our lead patron.
During all of the negotiations with the Goldsmiths’ Company we worked out the fine detail of our idea. The concept has grown. Now we want to use the opportunity to educate, inform and enthuse about contemporary silversmithing, but most importantly…….sell.
The British Silver Week organisation will act as the marketing, events, press and public relations centre. We are asking silversmiths to make a limited edition, signature piece for sale after the 9th June launch. The piece needs to be ready by March for photography and entry into the brochure and to prepare press releases and advertising.
The launch event will mainly be a press and public relations exercise at Goldsmiths’ Hall where 30 invited silversmiths will exhibit their new signature pieces. There will be selling events from the next day all over the country. Already we have 12 events booked from Glasgow down to the West Country. We are even discussing a show in New York.
The press and PR we will be creating will concentrate on silverware as a lifestyle statement of good taste and aspirational living.
The intention is to provide a high profile national platform to highlight the amazing range of talents displayed by Britain’s modern silversmiths. Modern British silversmithing has developed away from its traditional roots of massed produced tableware. Today many of the new pieces showcased have sculptural qualities and are works of art in their own rite. British Silver week will also provide an opportunity to emphasise that silver alloy technology has moved on and to present silver as a modern clean material suitable for 21st century living.
British Silver Week will encourage people to become collectors of the new works of exciting artist craftsmen, many of whom are art school educated and need the patronage of the British public. We will explain about the renaissance of silversmithing in the UK since the 1960s and our success at selling to the Far and Middle East through silversmiths such as Grant Mcdonald, Christopher Lawrence and Hector Miller as well as well known collectors in the UK such as the Duke of Devonshire.
Francis Reaymaekers of the Metal Gallery in London’s Silver Vaults summed up the contemporary silver industry recently, “We’ve never had such a large body of fine silversmiths in the history of UK silversmithing.” It would seem that now really is the time to look again at modern silversmithing.
For more information contact:
Ms. Jo Scott-Walker at;
British Silver Week: 07831 276 768
sales@britishsilverweek.co.uk
www.britishsilverweek.co.uk
I once visited a very, very upmarket retail jeweller in New York. They had three salespeople in the showroom, but I was told that only one was able to finish sales with consistent regularity. He made the client feel that they just had to pay for the item and leave with it rather than ‘think about it’. Selling coloured stones must be like this; they need to be sold with confidence and knowledge brings confidence.
One of the main issues is size and shape for specific types of stone ie. a large octagon methyst or aquamarine is not a problem; a large Octagon Ruby and a sapphire may not be a problem but the cost may be prohibitive. It is important that the sales staff are able to ‘nip the impossible in the bud’ and divert the client to something possible ie. to supply a large orange Spessatite Garnet pearshape could be difficult or very expensive but a fine orange Fire opal would give the same effect and is possible.
The impression we are getting at the moment is that women are wanting a ‘look’, which might include a coloured stone, rather than just the classic three stones Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, we have found Peridot to be a very popular colour at the moment as it goes well with current fashions but it is important to know that up to 8x6 it is an inexpensive stone but over 10x8 the price soars. As we are dealing with a natural product it helps if all the trade are as informed as possible as to what colours are available, in what sizes. It is necessary to be able to explain, with confidence, why a stone may be expensive.
Our extensive single stone stock is easily viewed on www.gfwilliams.co.uk. Many of our clients find this a valuable trade resource which can assist them price and sell coloured stones especially outside regular trading hours.
Jason Williams
THE GOLDSMITHS’ COMPANY’S
13TH YOUNG DESIGNER SILVERSMITH AWARD
THE GOLDSMITHS’ COMPANY’S annual Young Designer Silversmith Award 2007, now in its thirteenth year, was won by Leah Black of the Glasgow School of Art.
The Young Designer Silversmith Award scheme was started by Rosemary Ransome Wallis, Curator of the Collections at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1994 as an initiative to encourage students to show their artistic individuality in silver. “The rationale behind the award was to encourage studio silver design”, explained Rosemary, “with the combination of a competition for excellence of design and an opportunity to perfect dexterity of craftsmanship being at the heart of the scheme”.
The winner of the award is placed in a leading modern silversmith’s workshop where, with expert guidance, he or she is able to transform their design into silver. The finished piece is then presented to the appropriate major museum nearest the college for its collection of contemporary decorative arts, which in Leah’s case is the Kelingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow.
The brief for this year’s competition, which is open to any student under 30 in the United Kingdom on a BA or Master’s degree course, was to design “two candlesticks which should interact with each other either by shape, movement or reflection thus becoming a pair”.
The judges included Richard Himsworth, Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company and Grant Macdonald and Martin Dru Drury, both senior members of the Goldsmiths’ Company, Annamarie Stapleton consultant to the Fine Art Society in London together with artist silversmiths Rod Kelly and Alex Brogden. Rosemary Ransome Wallis said that Leah’s candlesticks were chosen because: “Leah’s design was sophisticated. The curved outlines look deceptively simple and combined with an innovative use of relief photo etching in the decoration of the base plates the overall effect is pure elegance.”
Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company Richard Himsworth presented Leah’s stylish silver candlesticks to Councillor Archie Graham, convener of Glasgow City Council’s Cultural and Leisure Services PDS Committee in a ceremony which took place in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow on Wednesday October 10, 2007. Leah was there to witness the handing over ceremony and was duly congratulated by both the Prime Warden and Councillor Archie Graham on her considerable achievement. She was also presented with her winner’s certificate for the Young Designer Silversmith Award 2007.
Leah is the sixth student from Glasgow School of Art’s department of silversmithing and jewellery to win this award and this was the second consecutive year when the winner has come from Glasgow School of Art. Robin Crerar and Jasleen Kaur, fellow students of Leah’s from Glasgow won the third prize and a commendation respectively. The head of the silversmithing department, Jack Cunningham, received a commemorative silver plaque from the Prime Warden who commented that he and his colleagues “must work magic to inspire such talent”.
Silversmith Andrew Putland also attended the ceremony as it was in the workshop of Carl Padgham and Andrew Putland that Leah turned her design of candlesticks into a silver reality, helped and supervised by both Carl and Andrew and with the help of their craftsmen Kevin Hart and Bret Symons.
Without the support and enthusiasm of the workshops and the one-to-one instruction given over a concentrated period, the Goldsmiths’ Company’s Young Designer Silversmith Award scheme would not be able to survive. Other workshops which have supported the scheme to date include Grant Macdonald, Richard Fox, Clive Burr, Howard Fenn, Hector Miller, Steven Ottewill and traditional workshops such as Garrard and Wakely & Wheeler.
Leah Black’s elegant candlesticks are now on display at Kelingrove Art Gallery & Museum, in a special showcase together with last year’s award winning fruit bowl by Karen Simpson highlightling the Young Designer Silversmith Award. The candlesticks are the sixth winning objects of this award to be presented to the Glasgow Museum Services. Last year the museum received 3.5 million visitors.
Other major museums which have also received pieces as part of the Goldsmiths’ Company’s Young Designer Silversmith Award include Aberdeen Museum, Manchester City Art Gallery, Birmingham Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum.
STEPHEN WEBSTER TO HEADLINE AT COLLECTIONS 13-15 JANUARY 2008, EARLS COURT, LONDON
Clarion Retail’s new design-led jewellery buying event, Collections, which takes place at Earls’ Court from 13-15 January 2008, is delighted to welcome Stephen Webster on board as its headline exhibitor. Collections will host Stephen’s debut UK trade show appearance and he will be using this platform to launch an exciting new silver line for men and women. Stephen Webster’s involvement with Collections is the latest development in this exciting show, which will provide an opportunity at the beginning of the year for retail buyers to stock up with new lines ahead of the busy Spring/Summer season.
Stephen Webster Ltd was established in 1988 and is now one of the largest jewellery manufacturing and design studios in London’s West End. He is widely considered to be one of the international scene’s most accomplished and exciting designers and has contributed greatly to changing the UK’s attitude to wearing jewellery. As a result, his jewellery design and craftsmanship attracts a loyal customer base including celebrities such as Madonna, Sharon Stone, Kate Moss and Elton John.
Stephen Webster, Designer, comments: “We are very excited to be exhibiting at our first ever UK trade show. Collections offers a perfect environment to launch our new women’s and men’s silver line, as well as showcase our precious creations in a highly contemporary, fresh and focused environment.
We will be exhibiting beautifully made and designed jewellery with all the edge, attitude and excellence that are our hallmarks to a wider audience, while still using the full spectrum of precious metals and exotic gems.”
Anna Wales, Show Director, says: “We are delighted that Stephen will debut at Collections and will help put the show firmly on the map as the place to source original, innovative design-led pieces at the start of the buying year. Stephen’s reputation in the jewellery world and inspirational designs truly reflect all that Collections stands for.”
Collections will be showcasing an array of precious and non-precious design-led jewellery, watches and silver design from a carefully edited selection of the very best designer makers, importers, manufacturers and distributors from across the UK. The show will be divided into seven dedicated areas for visitors to easily navigate:
Designer Collections, Fine Collections, Gold Collections, Silver Collections, Costume Collections, Silver Designs and Presentation and Display.
ASSAY OFFICE LONDON TAKES OFF AT HEATHROW
In July 2007, the British Hallmarking Council gave permission for Assay Office London to open a sub-office at Heathrow Airport. The office will be integrated within the highly secure Heathrow premises of Brink’s Global Services, a division of Brink’s Limited. This innovative, 2,000 square foot facility will offer the full range of hallmarking services currently provided at Goldsmiths’ Hall and the Greville Street sub-office. The Heathrow sub-office is the most exciting development in British hallmarking for global customers in recent years. It is a unique opportunity for the trade to receive goods already hallmarked thus shortening significantly the delivery time of goods. The association with Brinks will also ensure highly secure transfer of goods from the plane to the customers’ premises.
In addition to shortening turn around times and improved security, the Heathrow sub-office will also offer Assay Office London’s customers the latest technological equipment for hallmarking. This will include bespoke designed laser-marking machines and new styles of air-presses for traditional style punch marking. This investment in state-of-the-art technology will ensure that Assay Office London retains its position as the premier service provider for hallmarking services in the future. It is expected that the sub-office will open in late autumn 2007.
COLLECT: THE INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR FOR CONTEMPORARY OBJECTS RETURNS TO THE V&A IN JANUARY 2008
The Crafts Council presents Collect - Europe’s only annual art fair dedicated to contemporary craft – at the V&A, from 25-29 of January 2008.
Collect is an international celebration of museum-quality objects from 42 of the world’s leading galleries.
WE ARE HERE exhibition saw the launch of ACJ Midlands.
Exhibitors wore transportable showcases with the ‘ice cream’ usherettes creating their own exhibition space. The concept was created by Jo Pond and Zoe Robertson, both lecturers at the School of Jewellery in Birmingham.
Photography by Gareth Partington www.flaffrogimaging.moonfruit.com
In 10 years, Boodles has metamorphosed from a county jeweller with crammed window displays and clumsy brochures into a fully-fledged luxury brand. Now its challenge is to win over an international audience, writes Claire Adler.
Last June I was invited by Bentley to an exclusive tennis event called the Boodles Challenge. At the Stoke Park Club country estate, international tennis stars played in an intimate setting at an invitee-only tennis tournament the week before Wimbledon. So luxurious is this event that no seat is more than 10 metres from the court. So it’s almost like being on Centre Court at Wimbledon, only it’s more exclusive. Oh, and while I tried to act as if this happened every day, a chauffeur took me there and back in a Bentley Continental GT convertible. Sponsors of this annual event besides title sponsor Boodles, include Bentley, Patek Philippe, Fortnum & Mason and the Financial Times.
Then in September, I found myself at IJL listening to Michael Wainwright’s talk about the dramatic metamorphosis of Boodles over the last decade. With frankness and sometimes self-deprecating humour, he revealed in his down-to-earth style how the company looked 10 years ago – much of which was a far cry from the glamour of the Boodles Challenge tennis tournament.
After a lacklustre Christmas in 1997, Michael Wainwright decided Boodle & Dunthorne, as it had been known since 1798, needed some new bags for its five shops. Around the same time, he received a letter from a branding consultant.
“I didn’t even know what a branding consultant was, but I thought they’d help with the bags,” says Michael.
Over the course of a decade, Large Smith and Walford would radically transform the company’s advertising, public relations, store design, sponsorship, window display, staff training – and bags.
Early changes included the company name and logo. “The people who knew us called us Boodles and those who didn’t wrongly called us Boodle & Dunthorpe, so we switched to the snappier-sounding Boodles.
My father, who died in 1992, would be turning in his grave if he knew I’d got rid of the crown above the B and D on the logo, which tried to pass itself off as a royal warrant.”
Wainwright showed amusing before and after slides of shop window displays which “used to include the kitchen sink”, admitting his Northern shop managers took some convincing of the benefits of less is more. Boodles now feature a maximum of three pieces of jewellery on a brochure page, a policy advocated by Large Smith and Walford, who still work closely with the company.
Boodles has become far more fashion-conscious - with “unpractical” stone and glass store exteriors, advertising campaigns conceived by a stylist who commissioned bespoke dresses and style advisers who show “male and female staff how to make the best of themselves”.
A shop on Bond Street which opened in July this year would seem to be the culmination of the brand turnaround.
But Wainwright confesses that with the new Boodles store on Bond Street store since July and a slow summer at Harrods, the brand’s next major challenge is to score with wealthy Russians and Arabs.
Laurence Graff is possibly the most important jeweller in the world today. But, even as he engages in a significant expansion programme, he’s far from the most high profile, as Claire Adler discovers.
Securing a face-to-face interview with Laurence Graff is no easy task. Between homes in London, New York, Cap Ferrat in the south of France, Geneva (his legal residence), a Feadship yacht, a Global Express SRS plane, a winery and vineyard in Stellenbosch - the Napa Valley of South Africa, and a well-known preference for avoiding the press, Graff is something of an international man of mystery. Then again, more than almost every other fine jeweller in the business (barring Leviev), he successfully piles heaps of mystique onto the eye-popping diamonds he sells.
To jewellery industry insiders, his is a household name. Worth an estimated $2.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine, Laurence Graff has probably handled more important diamonds than any individual this century.
In Geneva in 1987 the most successful jewellery auction ever was held. Upfor sale were the jewels belonging to Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor. Graff bought the Windsor Yellows, a pair of fancy yellow pearshaped diamonds of 51.01 and 40.22 carats respectively. Graff also aquired the most historic and sentimental piece of all - the Duchess of Windsor’s 19 carat emerald engagement ring. “It is one of the finest emeralds I have ever seen,’ he was quoted as saying at the time. “I’ve got the original jeweller’s invoice which was made out to ‘The King.’” Graff gave the ring to his wife for their 25th wedding anniversary.
When the 15th largest rough diamond ever discovered came to light in the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho last September, the president of Lesotho himself immediately telephoned Laurence Graff with the news. Within days, diamond experts from Safdico, Graff’s manufacturing and trading arm, were in Lesotho. Meanwhile, in Antwerp, bidding parties each spent four hours examining the 603 carat rough stone. Two days later they had presented their sealed offers. In October 2006 Graff paid a record $20,500 a carat for the 603 carat Lesotho Promise diamond, the 15th largest rough diamond ever discovered. The diamond was found at the Letseng Diamond Mine in the Maluti Mountains of Mokhotlong district, in the northern part of Lesotho, a kingdom surrounded by South Africa. At over 3000 metres above sea level, it is the highest diamond mine in the world.
In May 2007, the first cut was made, marking the start of a stressful, time consuming and precise year-long operation to transform this huge rough crystal into magnificent flawless diamonds. Graff developed cutting edge software, tools and cutting machines specially for the Lesotho Promise. It has yielded 26 stones.
There is no try-before-you-buy with rough diamonds. Since no-one has ever cut a stone of this size and complexity with such advanced technology, Graff’s master cutter Pascal is engaged in an exacting mission. “It is a huge and monumental task. But it is a great honour to be responsible for such an important and historical stone,” he told the Sunday Times this summer.
Graff’s sister company in South Africa, Safdico RSA employs approximately 200 people. In a reassuring example of how the diamond industry is helping the local economy and giving employees a quality of life which would not have been available to them, Safdico employs 6 deaf people who are being trained in fancy polishing. Lecturers come and speak to staff about HIV and prevention. One employee had spinal tuberculosis and could not afford medical treatment. Safdico paid for his operation and effectively saved his life. Another employee suffering from epilepsy continually had fits. Once during a fit, he was beaten up and robbed on his way home from work.
Safdico acknowledged he was not receiving proper medical attention and sent him to a top neurologist who adjusted his medication.
Meanwhile, Laurence Graff’s modern and contemporary art collection alone is estimated at $250 million and elements of it adorn the Graff offices on Albemarle Street, Mayfair, including an acrobatic white sculpture of supermodel Kate Moss at the reception. When we met in the airy Graff boardroom, surrounded by more vast paintings and a flat screen switched to Bloomberg TV but on silent, Graff’s brief visit to London coincided with the Frieze Art Fair, though as he says: “I consider diamond cutting one of the greatest art forms there is.”
When Laurence Graff enters the room dressed immaculately in a suit and tie, it is impossible to forget the legendary journey he has made to get here. He spent his first seven years in a single room on Commercial Road in London’s impoverished East End. A newly released coffee table book about Graff documents how, aged 15 in 1960, he was sacked after three months at his first apprenticeship, where his duties included going out to buy sandwiches for the workers. But Graff’s unstoppable passion for diamonds combined with raw ambition and a talent for building client relationships brought him immense success, even at a surprisingly young age.
“I was very observant as a young boy growing up in the East End of London and wanted to learn everything,” remembers Graff. “I was brought up from an early age with the values of honesty and respect and these have stayed with me all my life. I was making jewellery when I was 15 and when I saw my first diamond this set off a passion in me which has taken me all the way to being known as one of the world’s leading diamantaires.”
At 17, making stars of David in his free time at a bench in his parent’s house to sell to friends, Laurence Graff could not have imagined that he would open over 20 stores and receive four Queen’s Awards for Enterprise. In 1974 Graff opened his first major retail store in Knightsbridge where he welcomed clients from all over the world. Graff’s business would become the first in the diamond industry to be vertically integrated - able to take a diamond all the way from its acquisition in the rough through to its sale in one of his shops. Graff owns cutting and polishing operations in Johannesburg, Antwerp, Mauritius and New York. He is also a shareholder in the Petra mine and Lesotho’s Letseng mine.
“The problem with owning a mine is that you have to bear the costs if you dig and don’t find anything. But I’m convinced that when the right opportunity comes along, we’ll go for it. We’re well situated in Johannesburg and we do receive offers,” he says.
The vast majority of Graff’s jewellery production takes place in Graff’s headquarters, in two adjacent 18th century townhouses in Mayfair, a couple of floors below the company boardroom.
Here in a workshop thought to be the largest in the world for handmade jewellery, an assortment of some of the most expensive coloured diamonds in the world are placed together to suggest the form of a showstopping necklace – taped humbly with Sellotape to a piece of cellophane paper to show what it will look like. Diamond setters and polishers surrounded by the most advanced laser welding machines on the market and top quality Leica microscopes sit in an airy, spotless room. Between 400 and 600 pieces are produced here monthly.
Despite a recently opened store in Tokyo and stores opening in Hong Kong, Geneva and New York with more to follow in Asia, haven’t some of Graff’s most serious buyers of high-end jewellery taken a hit over the summer?
“There are more people out there with more money than ever before,” maintains Graff. “The surge has been boosted by new money from Russia, China and India which in itself is reshaping the very high end of luxury even as global markets take a slight hit. New money is spent more easily than old money. There is an expression, “Make it easily, spend it easily”. I believe we are in a boom now.”
Having so many stores means customers can enjoy buying Graff jewellery in their local salon, says Graff. “It’s like being a member of an exceptionally exclusive club.” The average spend at Graff is “at least six figures”, according to Graff, although prices start from £5000.
Graff admits there are two major challenges associated with expansion on this scale – finding both great people and exceptional diamonds. “Taking a person into your company is like taking someone into your family,” he says. “It doesn’t matter about the references, the truth prevails in the end. As for diamonds, they might be mined every day, but quality diamonds are not,” he says.
But evidently, Graff still excels at client relationships and believes in good old fashioned personal service – of the most luxurious kind of course. In June this year, Graff sent a well-toned bodyguard along with an American client who flew to London to attend a function where she planned to wear a piece of Graff jewellery. Meanwhile, Graff’s youngest client is three months old. She’s just acquired a pink heart shaped diamond from Graff, paid for by her parents.
f.stahl
Jewellery - an expression of the joy of life
When Germany’s master toolmaker Friedrich Stahl and son Fritz founded Friedrich Stahl in 1947 in Birkenfeld, near Pforzheim, who would have guessed that the company would grow into one of Europe’s leading jewellery manufacturers?
Friedrich Stahl started by making auxiliary parts for the jewellery industry, and in 1947 created its first jewellery collection. Still based in Birkenfeld, it now has branches in the UK, Paris, the USA and Asia.
Friedrich Stahl is Fritz Stahl’s lifework. His comprehensive know-how in mechanical engineering and tool manufacture gives the company an edge. A born visionary, this octogenarian is still active at the top of the company, but plans for the future have been well thought out. The financial and corporate management is the responsibility of Peter Rost, who joined the company in 1975. Carsten Bissinger, General Manager, looks after distribution and marketing, and head of design is Ms Bärbel Bechtel, who designs the collections in conjunction with her international design team. In April 2006 Stahl formed a UK subsidiary DDesign, headed by Robin Mead, to market and distribute its brands in the UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands.
The first licence agreements for the development and production of jewellery for international brands Nina Ricci and Lanvin were signed in the early 1960s. The partnership continued to flourish, and in 2005 a licensing partnership was signed with Porsche Design. The company’s expertise and flair for design is also utilized by other international brands. Montblanc, Dunhill and Tiffany are just a few of the outstanding names for which Friedrich Stalhl works.
In 2007 Friedrich Stahl celebrated its 60th anniversary by forming a wholly owned subsidiary, F. Stahl. The plan is to carry on servicing the wholesale trade under Friedrich Stahl, while gearing itself to the retail market under F. Stahl, developing and marketing its own brands with betulla campo the first to be launched at Basel earlier this year.
betulla campo
To quote Fritz Stahl: “Jewellery is an expression of the joy of life, and a continuously new and fascinating challenge.” This was the reason behind the idea of establishing the company’s own brand in the premium sector, betulla campo.
Designers at Stahl took their inspiration from the beautiful shimmering birch trees in Birkenfield. The pattern of the bark of the birch is carried through the collection, with the filigree “b” motif displayed discreetly or boldly. The collection comprises two ranges – one in 925 Sterling silver, the other in 18ct pink, yellow or white gold – with exquisitely made rings, bracelets, earrings and necklaces. Both ranges include pieces set with diamonds.
f.stahl
The f.stahl line specialises in filigree women’s jewellery in 18ct gold and 925 Sterling silver. Each season some 100 designs are produced. Every stone is handworked, and each piece of jewellery is crafted individually in line with the company’s guiding principal: “form follows innovation”. The 18ct gold collection features shades of white, yellow and red. Highlights include cut diamonds, precious coloured stones with unusual cuts, and pearls.
Nina Ricci
Designers at Stahl interpret the Nina Ricci style to perfection, expressing the luxury and prestige of the leading French fashion house. The vibrant colours found in Nina Ricci’s couture work are reflected in the richness of the jewellery.
The collection’s carefully detailed designs such as Colombe, Papillons, Coeur, Rose, Arbre de Vie, Pomme and Chandelier reflect the symbols found on the flacons of Nina Ricci’s world-famous perfumes. The Rubans series in 18ct gold and 925 Sterling silver is a tribute to Nina Ricci herself.
Porsche Design
Porsche Design is one of the world’s leading luxury brands. Ever since Professor Ferdinand Alexander Porsche established the Porsche Design brand in 1972, his products have been synonymous with functional, classic and purist design.
In the latest P’3400 collection, titanium is combined with stainless steel and rose gold with onyx and diamonds or mother-of-pearl to create cufflinks, rings, key rings, money clips and bracelets. The Multi Silhouette range integrates the instantly recognisable silhouette of the Porsche 911 sports car crafted in stainless steel with guilloche and enamel in primary colours.
Made in Germany
Stahl’s high standard of work continues with the proud boast that products are still made in Germany, making Friedrich Stahl one of the few companies that have maintained a production facility in Germany. A workforce of 220 is employed at Birkenfeld. There are no risks of skills dying out, as the company trains the next generation of craftsmen. Every year 20 trainees are taken on for apprenticeships as commercial and industrial management assistants, galvanisers, goldsmiths, steel engravers, toolmakers, fine polishers and factory assistants. Many trainees are subsequently offered jobs in the company.
D Design will be showing at Collections, Earls Court, January 13–15, Stand L4. For more information contact Robin Mead, DDesign, tel 01462 484352.
It was with some trepidation that I met with the MD of Sutton Tools, Maggie Nichols, who is well known for her extraordinary stamina and enthusiasm for running marathons. I feel I can relate to her in some small way as I did run for a bus once – but there again, I didn’t catch it.
Sutton has always been a family business with Maggie being the founder’s great granddaughter, who joined the company in 1978. I went to see how they have settled in to their new showrooms in Vittoria Street, opposite the famous School of Jewellery.
I recalled with Maggie that many people will fondly remember her late husband Jack Nichols in the Sutton shop opposite the famous Chamberlain Clock in Hockley and at the trade shows exhibiting the latest gizmos and gadgets to enthralled jewellers. Since his death earlier this year Maggie has been working hard on the company and has concentrated on building on its many strengths. “We are expanding the range of materials we sell to become a ‘one-stop-shop’ for the trade. The move into our new premises itself has created many opportunities,” says Maggie, “including the holding of special demonstration days and product launches”.
Maggie explained to me, “Sutton Tools - Thomas Sutton (B’ham) Ltd - have dominated Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter since our formation in 1884. The business was established by Thomas Sutton in Warstone Lane where it remained until a move in 1972 to Frederick Street, and in 2006 had one more move, just 200 metres away, to Vittoria Street. The company is famous for the long service of its staff with Maggie recalling Billy Atkins, who joined them at 14 and stayed for 60 years. “He really was the face of Suttons for a very long time,” says Maggie.
Now in its 123rd year Sutton Tools has cemented its position as the largest jewellery equipment supplier in the Midlands and now offers an unparalleled additional range of precious metal products. Maggie enthuses about her sales team at Suttons, Joshua Kindness, the manager, Mahesh, Paul, Nelson and Adrian. “Not only are we offering the highest levels of personal service and product knowledge to customers but also we are highly price competitive in precious metal findings and bullion products.”
The company has had a great deal of success as the sole UK distributor of the PUK3 Easi-Welder which creates seamless, solderless welds on all precious metals and can weld adjacent to heat sensitive stones. Joshua enthuses that jewellers are finding the unit invaluable in the creation of designs never seen before.
Maggie believes that the industry is changing dramatically as large companies are downsizing or moving production abroad, therefore she thinks that the future lies in dealing with smaller companies and designer-makers. In response to these changes she is concentrating on the Sutton website and catalogue. With the next 123 years in her sights Maggie doesn’t mind planning the marathon – she’s used to it.
Thomas Sutton ( B’ham) Limited
Tel : 0845 0941884
Fax : 0845 0941784
Sales@suttontools.co.uk
Do you remember what it was like to get your first commission? Perhaps just out of college it seemed the world was your oyster. The optimism of youth coursed through your veins, giving a feeling that nothing can stop you.
Perhaps it did not take long for money to become an issue. Working to survive can mean creating objects to demand. Often the few things that already exist in your portfolio fuel that demand.
Perceptions of your particular niche by the public, journalists or by fellow craftspeople are quickly formed and can remain a stone around your neck perhaps for a lifetime. Many craftspeople never recover, some are happy and some are able to grow within it. Others have aspirations beyond the confines of their first steps and want an expansive, experimental approach to further their horizons in many different ways. These are the people who break the mould, chuck the pigeonholes and go their own way.
Of these craftspeople a significant trend has occurred over the last few years. Increasingly makers are stretching out to different disciplines and working across media and even stepping on the toes of other creators. Included in this group are the jewellers and silversmiths increasing the size of their work to encompass monumental artworks more akin to fine art than craft in its usual guise. Many use the notion of function to embrace differing size; some abandon this notion and concentrate on form, meaning and context.
The movement of craftspeople across disciplines has resulted in a flood of new works created with this new context…public work within the environment. These can be jewels draped over a new kind of host or they can conceptually encompass the environment for which they are intended, affording a significant contribution to the enhancement of the living environment. Correctly used these works can give form and direction to space while re-energising sterile environments. A maker is asked to solve a problem through artwork; the problem can be urban decay or environmental management in its broadest sense. Urban landscape can be uplifted and redefined by one piece placed in the right context with the right feel and understanding of its special situation.
An object’s ‘reason to be’ can be justified in many different ways within this world. It can stand as art or become part of the useful landscape with function as part of the brief. Even when obvious function is abandoned the work can be useful as a marker, milestone, focal point and visual reminder within urban spaces that may otherwise be bland or repetitive. So function can serve a dual purpose or have a singularity unique to its context.
Size matters
Alongside these considerations is the practical implementation of the construction of the artwork; an increase in size creates its own problems.
So what happens when tactile control, so important to makers, has to be relinquished? Given over to another’s skill. In many cases the craftsperson becomes hands free and therefore free to explore forms and structures. Sometimes they hold on to their making skills and create the work in collaborative ventures that override the necessity for external intervention. In some cases the work produced becomes less inspired as the problems of construction swamp the idea and in others the work blossoms and glows with new vigour.
The tactile link with craftsmanship is one of the driving forces that make craftspeople what they are. It can be a wrench to hand over work to another. It takes very careful control not to allow the work to subside into a pastiche of the original idea. The necessities of structure compromise details and standard finishes are perhaps one of the main killers of the final form. In crossing boundaries in both art and craft perhaps the biggest jump happens when tackling issues of size. So a craftsperson creates their own work with their own hands on a smaller scale. But if it gets too big then what? Hire in some help? Farm out to larger companies?
In the process of building an artwork too large for an individual craftsperson to make by themselves there are many traps waiting for the unsuspecting. Unless the craftsperson has absolute control it can be easy for the makers to re-translate a piece into their own way of looking at the object. This can be affected by the process of building, the practicality of the design in its context, its vulnerability and general hardiness on site. It can be changed by the structural requirements looking beyond its original concept to safety and longevity. At each stage of development greater control than before has to be exercised in order to maintain the object’s integrity. It means constant attention to the drawings and the interpretations of all the sketch amendments that happen along the way. It means checking the making process and perhaps most important of all the finishing and putting together particularly on site. All of that coupled with safety issues and insurance criteria it is no surprise that many craftspeople are wary.
Very few craftspeople tackle the very different solutions to problems that objects of different sizes demand. It is safer not to; some of course don’t want to. Makers allow themselves to find a comfort zone, an area in which they understand the limitations and permutations of material and proportion, touch and concept. In researching for this article I asked many makers if they had done anything at a larger scale. The general response was yes. However on viewing the object I found that it was just a little bigger and had not incorporated a significant change of scale.
Increasingly, however, there are more craftspeople creating work on a large scale. The opportunities have expanded with the range of agencies working to promote new work in the urban environment. The effect can be most clearly seen in Cardiff and the surrounding countryside. There is a sculpture or feature for almost every roundabout. New work are accenting spaces all over Cardiff. In the main this is due to a high level of activity by local agencies promoting and facilitating urban regeneration projects. Many of the features are by craftspeople not fine artists, a curious development of recent projects.
In the past the expectations and understanding of commissioners have been limited by their perception of the labels applied to forms and methods of working.
Commissioning is made easier by this phenomenon. You only have to visit craft websites in order to view this in action. They are mainly divided into sections described as Jewellery, Ceramics, Textiles, Furniture, and Blacksmithing. It is rare to find one person shown in more than one category. This is partly a material based occurrence but clearly size also plays an important part. It is plainly demonstrated in jewellery, silversmithing and blacksmithing.
Each has its size parameters defined by the nature of the label attached.
Many abide by these definitions but take examples such as the jeweller Julia Mannheim. Her early explorations in acrylics have expanded into sculptural installations at an altogether bigger scale. She is no longer truly a jeweller but has a much broader creative genre.
Looking at size and scale within the crafts it is tempting to ascribe characteristics to many of the subject areas for example a jeweller creates small things for the body, a silversmith creates domestic ware, a blacksmith does the big stuff whilst hanging on to the making. As soon as the making is given over to another the craftsperson ascribed the label of ‘Designer’ or ‘Artist’ and assumed by most to be just that. A fine artist makes sculpture and a silversmith makes teapots. Nothing wrong with that. Yet perhaps there is something missing in the perception. Maybe, just maybe the pigeonhole syndrome strikes where it is just not wanted. Strip away the labels and what are you left with? Just creative people.
And how big is big?
Undoubtedly scale is relative. To an ant we are inconceivably huge. Do they even know we are there? To an elephant we are small. To the Earth the Sun is huge but the Moon is small. All are tiny when faced with the universe. For us the limitation has to be the makeable object, whether on a jewellery or an architectural scale, rendering the whole process inevitably human in scale and human in context.
As things get bigger their volumes increase, but their surface areas do not increase as quickly. An understanding of this is fundamental to the translation of models to real objects. A maquette can look light and delicate but the full sized creation if unadjusted is crude and heavy. Put simply a 1mm wire on a model at 1:100 becomes a massive 100mm solid bar with an altogether different effect from the model.
Things at different scales can look very similar. So you may not be able to tell what it is, if you do not know the scale. Also, some things look very different at different scales, which too can be misleading. To abstract this idea take a ping pong ball and photograph it alongside scale models of the human figure in order to distort its real dimensions.
A way of working
The collaborative work of Brett Payne and Chris Knight has an anomaly in its visual language. Many of the smaller scale works of both these craftspeople would look just as good at a large scale. Take the candle out and put the piece in a town square and there you have it! Perhaps the translation from small to large is therefore easier for them, and then again perhaps not. The large work has an altogether different feel from their tableware. Perhaps the essence of the ability to transform a way of working from one scale to another is an ability to re-invent your own design methodology.
Look at the work of Michael Rowe…. does it not have a monumental feel in spite of its domestic stature? His vessels are more Frank Gehry in their potential monumentality than Gehry’s maquettes.
Wendy Ramshaw describes the design process of larger works as very similar to her own practice within jewellery. Indeed her large work bears a strong resemblance to her small works. A mobile she created for the foyer of a theatre has the spatial quality also evident in her better-known jewellery. The maquette betrays its jewellery roots.
This jewel-like quality is retained in most of her large pieces work. An exception is the Canary Wharf Wall which has assumed a more monumental feel whether by design or by accident. It remains a significant departure from other works by Wendy. Interestingly it has a drawn-by-hand quality that most of her work, large or small, does not. It is as if a boundary was somehow crossed that much of her other large pieces bypassed.
Often the context of the work can be so dramatically different that the limitations of the placing of the object, whether it is on the body or in a public place dictates a whole new set of criteria within which to work. The function of the work may be a significant factor in the design of the form. The surrounding finishes may dictate its final texture.
All in all the ones who do get on with it are forging new ground, laying a path for those who follow. Many more are joining the ranks of the urban ‘makers’. As companies which build things and structural engineers gather around to offer support and a way through the inevitable minefields craftspeople are feeling stronger and braver with every passing year. Just five years ago it would not have been possible to write this article with any conviction. Now the tide is turning the other way. We may soon be flooded with art in the landscape created by craftspeople, makers like us, like you perhaps?
Contact: marianne_forrest@lineone.net
DAVRAN
“Something old, something new” our 12 Gents Zodiac pendants, stamped from 1.5 mm sheet by tools made in the mid 1960’s. We were often asked what happened to the decent stamped Zodiac we used to make and like some 2,500 other good old fashioned products, we now stock the Zodiacs for a quick delivery.
Following Davran’s time honoured instincts for quality and beautiful jewellery, these are hand finished and have a plain highly polished reverse suitable for engraving.
Why not add a silver one to your next special order with us? A silver item often sells a gold one and we would be happy to email you the image for the month required, before delivery or you can see them on the J-dex wall planner for 2008.
J-dex magazine 
