Dear orchideans,
I read the digest daily, taking an interest in most subjects written
about. I am not a part of the CD/CAM revolution, and I do not want to
be! I am proud of my history as a goldsmith where I have made many
beautiful artifacts using the knowledge in my brain and the skills of
my own hands. I want to remain an artist craftsman, and not become a
machine operator. I am sure the results from the innovations of the
CAD/CAM manufacturing techniques, will eventually kill the trade of
hand goldsmithing as I know it. In the past ten years over here in
the UK, many of our major gold and silversmithing companies have
ceased trading. There are less and less craftsmen teaching
apprentices the trade. I am a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of
Goldsmiths and they send me an annual report on the trade, I was
checking some back issues and I see that in a report sent to me,
twenty two years ago, there were twenty six apprentices who had
completed their apprenticeships as goldsmiths or silversmiths, and as
so were granted the Freedom of the Goldsmiths Company. In this
year’s report from the Goldsmiths there were only two apprentices
completing their apprenticeships listed. I searched through my
archives to find the report relating to the year when I finished my
apprenticeship, which was 1967. Would you believe that there were
seventy six apprentices listed that year, and bear in mind this was
only in London.
I am getting to the end of my career now as I am sixty this week,
and I just hope that perhaps somewhere in the world there will be
people who continue making precious metalwork by hand, keeping the
old traditions alive. We must never get to a situation where the
skills of the past are not passed on and get to a situation that
people think that machine made objects and jewellery are the only
option.
Good wishes to all from an unusually hot UK,
James Miller, Master Goldsmith, Fellow of the Institute of
Professional Goldsmiths, Freeman of the Worshipful Company of
Goldsmiths and a Freeman of the City of London and sometimes full of
hot air, sorry for ranting folks !!!