Meet the young silversmiths showing their work at Wentworth Woodhouse

Some of the UK’s finest makers will be displaying their handcrafted gold, silver, platinum and gemstone collections in the State Dining Room, where King George V and Queen Mary dined in 1912.

Visitors can expect unique jewellery and contemporary silver pieces for the home - and the chance to meet highly-skilled makers.

Goldsmiths North launched in 2019 to celebrate Sheffield’s silversmithing history and support independent makers. It draws thousands to the Cutlers' Hall every summer for a shopping experience with leading independent silversmiths, goldsmiths and fine jewellery-makers.

Creating a winter version of the event at Wentworth Woodhouse is the brainwave of its founders, renowned silversmiths Brett Payne and Rebecca Joselyn.

“We were thinking of staging a pre-Christmas event and realised Wentworth Woodhouse was the ideal location,” says Rebecca. “This magnificent historic setting is a true South Yorkshire gem. It was built with outstanding design and craftsmanship and no doubt the Marquesses of Rockingham and the Earls Fitzwilliam commissioned many beautiful items from Sheffield silversmiths and jewellers.

"We are bringing to the mansion a shopping experience that isn’t available on the high street – a chance to handle the silverware, try on the jewellery, engage with and buy directly from the makers themselves.

“We have selected 20 leading independent makers at the top of their game. They will be showcasing a wide range of precious metal and jewellery-making disciplines; from traditional silversmithing and stone-setting to working with the newest advances in technological tools.

“Expect to find one-of-a-kind treasures at every price range, from handmade silver stud earrings for under £100 to intricate gem-set jewellery and modern design classics selling for thousands of pounds.”

Some exhibitors will be travelling from as far as Cornwall, Glasgow and Caernarfon.

South Yorkshire makers include two women who have been supported by Yorkshire Artspace's Silver Space, which supports emerging silversmiths with business development and professional facilities at Sheffield’s Persistence Works.

Ghanaian-born Francisca Onumah is an award-winning silversmith and jeweller. She works mainly with silver and copper and creates layered textures and patterns on sheet metal, which she shapes into minimalistic vessels and jewellery which often mimic human forms. Pieces are finished with dusky oxidisation and subdued matte silver highlights. Her work can be found at The V&A, Sheffield Museums, The Sheffield Assay Office and The Walker Art Gallery.

She describes her creations as ‘functional sculptures’.

After graduating from a jewellery and silversmithing course in Birmingham in 2015 Francisca then worked for a jeweller in London before moving to Sheffield to Yorkshire Artspace’s Silver Space for the starter studio programme – which provides mentoring tools and equipment as well as technical support.

“It was an invaluable as it can be very expensive starting out – they help you creatively but also in how to set up a business,” says Francisca.

"During my degree I started off with a real love for jeweller but during the course I found it difficult to find my own language in jewellery and so in my third year I moved toward silversmithing and fell in love with making larger objects. I do still make jewellery but only when an idea comes to me.” Mainly working in sterling silver, she also works in oxidised-copper and makes her vessels as a group so that they fit together as if they are having a conversation. “They are often sold individually but clients have often bought another so it has a friend. They are inspired by figurative forms that are grouped together. I grew up in Ghana and move to the UK when I was right a lot of our culture is around family meeting and eating together and I wanted my vessels to have that feeling of home.

She creates texture using hammers, sometimes hammering through materials. “I am interested in textiles and I have created some pieces that look like they have seams.”

She mainly sells her work though fairs like Goldsmith North or though commissions.

“Someone saw one of the broaches I made and he collects boxes so he commissioned a box that had a similar shape to the broach.”

Gonzo Studio is run by silversmith and jeweller Abigail Asher. Her collections often allude to her working class roots growing up in Stoke on Trent. She specialised in ceramics at college and went to Manchester School of Art where she studied a 3D design course. “The beauty of that was that it allowed me to play around with a lot of different materials. I’d always been interested in jewellery and I loved experimenting with different materials but It wasn’t until my third year that I worked with silver for the first time and it felt like a revelation.

"But I really didn’t have clue what I was doing. I watched lots of YouTube videos on polishing and stone setting. I set up a studio in my flat at uni so that I could work on it whenever I could.”

After doing a one year at residency at Bishopsland, a well known programme in the silversmithing industry, she moved to Sheffield, to the Artspace which gave her access to tools, equipment and mentoring.

"The plan wasn’t to stay,” she says. “The plan had been to move up to Edinburgh but I fell in love with Sheffield – and also my partner who is a Sheffield lad and loves his city and now its eight years later.

"Working with silver is just beautiful – I love the feel of the material and how it works. I was just in love with at a material.” You wouldn’t necessarily think that working in silver was indicative of her working class roots, but she says it feels like two sides of her personality and upbringing.

“I love the shapes and styles that I associate with growing up – like the jewellery you could buy in the Argos catalogue – but in silver. Its bringing those motifs in but in a refined way.”

One star piece is a 9ct gold and sterling silver chip fork pendant embellished with the words: In Chips We Trust, and she is currently working on a Sheffield-inspired special commission for the Goldsmiths Company’s 700th anniversary next year.

“The chip fork and a 50p pendant talk very strongly of social structures and differences – they are my show pieces – people enjoy them but they aren’t necessarily the pieces people are going to buy. SO its striking a balance between showing who you are and having pieces available that people can incorporate into their lives a bit more easily.”

Sarah McLeod OBE, the CEO of Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, said: “We are proud to welcome Goldsmiths North, which exists to support the sector and help makers earn a viable living. This event shines a light on precious metal artisans and some of the UK’s most talented makers will be in the room.”

Goldsmiths North at Wentworth Woodhouse runs from November 13-15, entry is £19.50, and gives unlimited access and re-entry during all three days and entry to the mansion, its current exhibition, Echoes of The House: Stories In Light and Motion, and visit the gardens. www.wentworthwoodhouse.org.uk