Making new "stuff" from old "stuff"

Susannah approached me about making her a new piece of jewellery from some old pieces of silver that had come from her mother's house, little did I know about the story that would emerge once I agreed to have a go at the project!

Tankard and napkin rings retrieved from Susannah's mother's house

Susannah is currently writing a book:

The Life of Stuff by Susannah Walker, a memoir in which she pieces together her mother’s life story and makes sense of their troubled relationship through her mother’s hoarded possessions.

The book tells the story of how Walker discovered the full extent of the hoarding only after her mother’s death last year.  While sorting through her dilapidated house, she finds herself in search of a woman she had never really known.

“Through her mother’s hoarded possessions – photos, papers and an extraordinary amount of stuff – Walker raises all sorts of questions about who we are. What do our possessions say about us?  Why do we project such meaning on to them?  What turns us from someone who simply enjoys having objects around them into someone who hoards uncontrollably?  Walker’s complex, deeply personal story has hugely universal themes, and she handles its telling with real dexterity.” (Andrea Henry, Transworld)

Working it out and cutting it up.

The silver tankard was her mother's from a young age and as Susannah pointed out, it looked like it had seen quite a lot of aggression - maybe it had been thrown down the stairs a few times to gain its beaten up look.  Susannah explains the story far better than me and you'll need to read her book to get the whole picture, but it is a sad one.  You notice that one of the napkin rings has the name "Alastair" on it - this was a baby brother who died very young in infancy.  I automatically thought that maybe Susannah would want to keep the name intact and have it on the jewellery in some way, but no, Susannah's mother Patricia had a miserable childhood because the parents had always wanted a boy, and she lived all her life believing that the wrong child had died as an infant.  Susannah wanted the silver to be re-fashioned, yes as a memory of her mother's life, but to take away that heartbreak that Alastair had (although unwittingly) caused her.

We decided on a wide silver cuff which would keep some of shape of the items without any of it having to be melted down.  I was to use the "Alastair" napkin ring, but the name would be hidden.

Patricia's tankard becomes a cuff

The process of cutting up the silver was tough going and the metal required lots of annealing to soften it up enough to re-shape.  By softening, I was also able to hammer out some of the "beatings" that the tankard had received.

Flattening the napkin rings

Rather than try to solder all the layers together I decided to semi-rivet them - trying to evenly heat this quantity of silver was problematic.

Cuff in a rather raw state

The cuff need a lot of cleaning up, and I decided on a brushed finish for a more contemporary look.

Finished silver wrist cuff

Susannah now has a finished piece of jewellery that contains lots of memories, but one which also diminishes some of the sad ones.  The story of the cuff will conclude her book.

She has sent me a chapter of "The Life of Stuff" which focuses on the "silver napkin ring" - its demise, its significance, its being part of a ritual of belonging!  I have rather the opposite problem with stuff - I can't bear clutter - and only recently I recycled my silver napkin ring (given to me as a baby for my Christening) because I had never understood the point of it.  None of my grandparents are alive, so I don't think anyone will be offended.  Susannah's thoughts on these items are fascinating and I can't wait to read the book.

The Life of Stuff by Susannah Walker will be published by Doubleday in hardback in spring 2018.

Upcycling, recycling, reworking

Last year I seemed to become the “Divorce Ring” go-to jeweller!  Didn’t know it even existed?  No, nor did I.  But not all wedding and engagement rings maintain that sentimental “love you forever” meaning, especially when a couple separates.  Many women don’t want to carry on wearing those rings in the same way – they need to be re-fashioned into a “this is the start of my new life” ring or another piece of jewellery altogether.  Lots of people inherit old-fashioned pieces of jewellery that they love, but it just isn’t their style, so why not get it revamped?

My first upcycled piece was a very personal one to me.  My dear father died at a crazy young age.  I ended up making my mother a new ring with 2 types of metal wrapped together to signify the two of them, and their initials pierced out on the inside – she loved it and decided that it was all she wanted to wear on her ring finger.  A while later, she asked me if I would like her engagement, wedding, and eternity rings to use in other pieces.  I was a bit taken aback – surely they had huge sentimental meaning – but she insisted that she wanted me to have them and didn’t want them left in the back of a drawer.  I ended up cutting the gold shank off the engagement ring and using the classic solitaire diamond setting as a gorgeous pendant on a gold chain for my mum – she hasn’t taken that off since either.  I made myself a ring with all the remaining gold and the diamonds and emeralds from the eternity ring – it was the kind of primitive, medieval style that I favour and the only extra bit I added was a gorgeous ruby.  I think of my dad every time that I wear it.

Sometimes I am asked to retrieve the stones from settings and then use them in completely new metal.  There might not be enough metal for me to be able to melt down and re-use – if there are only small amounts I might melt it down into tiny balls and use them as additional detail on the new piece.  Cutting stones out of old jewellery is not a fun job, so don’t expect that it will be a cheap way to get new jewellery – it is actually pretty stressful, especially if the tiny stones are flush set in hard white gold or platinum.  I break out in a cold sweat worrying that a diamond is going to ping out and fly across the studio (this hasn’t happened yet I hasten to add – the stones have usually become so grimy through wear that they are pretty well stuck into the metal!).

Gold and garnets recycled from an unwanted brooch

9ct gold and silver with garnets

Silver and rose gold with diamonds, emeralds, peridot and tourmaline

18ct gold around silver with sapphire and diamonds

If there is a good amount of metal to melt down (and hallmarking is important here – you need to know exactly what you are working with), I melt it into a nugget and then spend a considerable amount of time and energy hammering it out, re-annealing it, and putting it through my roller to give me something to work with.  It might also require the addition of some metal grain to increase the volume.  Because my work tends to be chunky and bold, the re-fashioned gold and silver may form a layer over new metal.

A lovely piece that I made recently included 2 narrow rings of 9ct gold that didn’t have a lot of value, but they had belonged to my client’s late grandmother – she wanted something made from them so that she’d always be reminded of her.  My client liked my Juno rings, and I struggled for a while wondering what to do with the small amount of metal.  I decided to hammer and texture the bands and then solder them together to form one ring – it was then topped with a carved silver bezel containing a blue topaz.  She was thrilled with the result – one of my Juno rings plus the added meaning offered by her grandmother’s jewellery.

Another client had never particularly liked the setting of her engagement ring – it was one of those awkward situations of having to admit to her husband after 10 years that she’d really rather have it re-styled.  The diamond was an absolutely stunning princess cut stone – very valuable.  She liked the style of my jewellery, but I don’t do any traditional claw-set pieces – mine is all pretty contemporary.  I warned her that her diamond would not get the same amount of light shining through it once set in a carved rub-over setting.  She decided that she would rather have the contemporary style and have something that she really would enjoy to wear.  Luckily she was thrilled to bits with her new ring and I breathed a sigh of relief!!