Process: Keum-boo 24K gold on silver

Today marks my first attempt to implement this ‘Collections’ model, setting a date and working towards it in the same way I have done in the past, when I did more in-person events.

It was a real pleasure releasing myself from the imagined obligation of listing things constantly, wondering how to communicate without being annoying, etc. This way I just make an announcement, aim for my date, and then send out another note when the time is nigh. Mostly I’m happy with how it went, but there’s room for improvement.. For example, it was not my intention that every new listing appear in the shop with a big stupid watermark across it-that was intended for social media. Grr!

What’s much more interesting is the process of creating all this stuff, and all the neat techniques for using different materials there are. Keum-boo is a perfect example. The necklace above, and a pair of bracelets in the shop, feature big links of fine silver, which is .999 pure. Using a special hot plate (for laboratory use), I heat the fine silver up to 300C and fuse 24K gold foil to the surface by simply burnishing it. The tool for this is so nice, it’s a highly polished piece of agate in a bamboo handle.

Unlike gold leaf, foil has some heft to it. Leaf is stress-inducingly light; a breath can send a hundred-dollar piece floating away, while foil slithers off the hand like chain mail.

I kept thinking as I worked what I wanted to say about things and the how and why of the design solutions I arrive at. There’s just not a lot of room for that in a product description, where it feels awkward to run on and on about the joys of a silicone polishing wheel to someone who just wants to look at a piece of jewelry.

This is the place for that, and I’m looking forward to it.

For now, enjoy this fantastic video of the gold beaters of London, creating gold leaf (and foil, I’m sure) BY HAND. Leaf still comes in books of orange tissue, sewn with red thread. I love that.

Cheers for now. Thank you for coming by.

Kim