Friday, January 7, 2011

Weekend Eye Candy - V&A Edition


With silver prices rocketing sky high, I'm giving a great deal of thought to my future in jewelry making and teaching. One FaceBook friend said she had it on good authority (a friend of hers) that silver could reach $75.00 before we know it!

Jewelry makers are going to have to become very clever, either at marketing silver as the new gold (and think how inexpensive we'd think gold was at $75) or finding new materials to work with.

Here's hoping the world regains it's sanity in 2011.

2 comments:

TesoriTrovati said...

I have been wondering about that....how do silversmiths and goldsmiths (I may have the term wrong) keep producing with prices like that? I don't use silver exclusively and prefer a mixed bag of metals. But then again, I really don't fabricate anything the way you do. I find these things you show very inspiring. There is a whole world out there of materials that are just gorgeous. I particularly like when the limits are pushed and cast off items are brought to new life. Thank you for sharing that!
Enjoy the day!
Erin

Phoenix said...

I think recycling . . . reusing and reinventing ways to create jewelry has been on the rise for a while. I know I will be looking at more mixed media ways to create as silver prices go up.

I like the idea of it being the "new gold" as it is still less in cost of materials than gold :).

The concept that concerns me - for those of us that work in fine silver - the term is used loosely with major retailers to bring folk back into jewelry stores and they are referring to sterling. I was stunned at the empty jewelry stores during the peak of the holiday season, as I'm sure were the owners of those stores . . . and I think the overall strong market trend is handmade - weather from a precious metal or a tire - and it's all good for us eh?!