Silver Plating
The creation of our beautiful silver prices takes place in small workshops (in Mexico??), in the homes and gardens of our craftsmen who are quick to welcome you with a warm smile. These are places where your senses come to life with the sound of hammering, the smell of wood smoke, the heat of the fire pits, all surrounded by vibrant bougainvillea.
Different families have different skill sets, passed down through the generations and here we bring you a snapshot of the journey each of our pieces takes before it reaches your door.
1
Recycled Copper
The base of our products is made from pure, recycled copper. Each week lorry loads of copper wires and other copper scraps are delivered to the village for recycling.
The copper is painstakingly untangled, inspected and sorted by hand to ensure that anything that is not pure copper is discarded.
2
Smelting
The smelting takes place in a hole dug in the earth of the workshop. It appears primitive, but it is a remarkably precise and ordered process using local wood, ash, charcoal, ancient fans and man power. Once the copper has melted, it is left to cool slightly, before being beaten by three men wielding massive hammers over their heads as they rotate methodically around the pit to create a perfect pure copper disc ready for the next stage.
3
Hand Beating
The copper discs are then transported to the next family home, who always welcome us with a warm smile and a delicious home-cooked meal.
Here, the disc of pure, solid copper will be hammered and fashioned into shape. An extraordinary number of tools of various shapes and sizes lie around the workshop, which have been passed down from father to son for generations. A small fire burns for the copper to be smelted again as the process of creation begins. From a repeated process of smelting, beating, washing, heating, beating, a beautiful shiny copper holloware work of art appears.
4
The Handle
The copper holloware then makes a 400km journey to another artisan team, where the process of creating the ornate handles begins. This father and son team work seamlessly together - each knowing what the other requires at every stage. First, they fashion the rim of the jug before they draw and stencil the desired shape onto a sheet of copper. After all sides are cut and placed together, they are then soldered on to the jug to form the basis on which the finished handle will be built.
5
Stone Mosaic
Out in the countryside with a studio surrounded by fuchsia bougainvillea and chickens strutting, the final artisan works on the most delicate and precise stage of the journey. Pieces of local semi-precious stone are cut, ground and polished before piece by piece the artisan fits the stone together, like a jigsaw, onto the copper handle and the jugs begins to come to life.
6
Silver Plating
The final stage is like magical alchemy before our eyes as the jugs are dipped and double plated onto the copper before being polished into the beautiful objects we love.
BESPOKE
All of our silverware products can be made to order with your own choice of malachite, lazurite or pearl.
