Goldsmiths’ Fair–Jewels, silver directly from UK designer-makers
Goldsmiths’ Fair 2009
LONDON, August 8, 2010 – Goldsmiths’ Fair, which will take place from September 27-October 10, is a one-stop destination for those seeking jewellery and silver by some of Britain’s leading designer-makers.
Over the past 28 years the Fair, located at Goldsmiths’ Hall in London, has become one of the most important events of its kind in Europe.
This annual selling event, which is open to the public, is about the bespoke, the original and the one-offs.
Each piece is hand-made by dedicated artists in small workshops around Britain.
Goldsmiths’ Fair is an opportunity for designer-makers to talk to the public about their latest collections, and explain their techniques and inspiration.
ANCIENT SKILLS, NEW TECHNOLOGIES
The ancient, traditional skills of the jeweller and silversmiths are much in evidence at Goldsmiths’ Fair, in some cases fused with cutting-edge technologies.
Jewellers Tina Engell and Roslyn Millar, for example, use the cuttlebone from cuttlefish to cast their jewellery, a technique widely used by Renaissance jewellers, resulting in an attractive, grainy texture which looks both antique and yet very modern.
At the other end of the spectrum, advanced laser welding enables jewellers and silversmiths to scale new heights.
Tom Rucker’s jewellery, for example, is made by painstakingly laser welding fine platinum wire together to produce an intricate molecular lace like effect.
Equally silversmith Kevin Grey , exhibiting at the Fair for the first time, uses laser and TIG welding techniques to join individual hand-raised formed pieces of silver to produce his beautiful, seemingly seamless vessels, remarkable for their simplicity of form, line and volume.
White gold, yellow gold, green gold, rose gold, silver and platinum are regularly combined to great effect – be it by weaving or drawing gold wire as seen in the jewellery of Andrew Lamb and Catherine Martin, or coiling techniques as practised by Daniela Dobesova.
Another jeweller Angie Boothroyd has recently explored the blending of different colours of gold using up to 17 different alloys in her latest collection to produce a striking continuous spectrum ranging from white, to green, to yellow, to rose, and back to white.
