Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.“It is a bit like splashing paint on to a canvas. In so much as you do it bit by bit, which sounds controlled; but there’s a lot that’s also intuitive,” says silversmith Jessica Jue.She is referring to keum-boo, the ancient Korean gilding technique of applying 24-carat gold foil to silver, which she uses to decorate her nature-inspired matte beakers and sculptures. It is the “fluidity” and “painterly aspect” of this process that appeals to Jue, who is inspired by the calligraphy brushwork her Chinese father practised when she was growing up in Austria. Jue’s is among the contrasting approaches to the traditional technique that can be seen at Goldsmiths’ Fair in London. The annual two-week selling exhibition of work by 136 contemporary silversmiths and jewellers opens on September 24. “Keum-boo is a good avenue for silversmiths who are trying to change the perception of what silversmithing is, and to be more sculptural and artistic,” says Harriet Scott, head of the fair. “It’s turning their vessels and sculptures into artworks, and not just through form. It gives them the opportunity to do it through colour and drawing.” Self-taught silversmith Samuel Waterhouse started using keum-boo about six years ago, to enhance his work with pattern. “I love different glazes on ceramics. Having the ability to cover a whole silver object in different colours has massively changed my work,” he says, making his silverware “look almost like ceramic”.Often, the key to keum-boo is a preparatory process called depletion. After shaping and giving texture to the silver, Jue heats it with a blowtorch and then “pickles” it in acid for a few minutes in a slow cooker. This draws the fine silver to the surface — important for an alloy like sterling silver — and turns it white. “When you have fine silver and fine gold there’s a natural exchange of electrons, which creates a permanent bond when they are fused,” says Jue, whose Ever Flowing Sculpture (2022), decorated using keum-boo, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. After washing off the acid, Jue repeats the heating and pickling stages about five times before she begins the process of keum-boo. For this, she takes a thin strip of gold foil with tweezers and places it against the heated silver before pressing hard with a burnisher — made from either steel or agate — to bond the precious metals. She keeps adding foil, building up her design like a collage.London-based Waterhouse takes a different approach for his matte bowls — he begins with keum-boo. First he takes a fine silver disc, and applies his base colour — typically a green gold made by alloying gold and silver and rolling it into foil. He then scribes a precise pattern on to the disc, and adds 24-carat gold foil. Once all the gold is applied, he hammers the silver disc into a bowl.The growing interest in keum-boo among younger makers in the UK has been driven by ‘how to’ demos on YouTube and InstagramWaterhouse is careful not to damage the design, though he appreciates “a little bit of distortion”. At first “the pattern can almost look too sharp and too clinical, but once you’ve hammered it you get lots and lots of little undulations in the surface, and that texture breaks up the lines,” he says. “It softens or crumples the pattern.” His silverware typically costs £1,500-£20,000.Jue credits the growing interest in keum-boo, especially among younger makers in the UK, to demonstrations shared on Instagram and other social media. Both she and fellow Edinburgh College of Art graduate Sheng Zhang developed their skills by watching YouTube videos.For “Patch”, his octagonal sculptural vessel, Glasgow-based Zhang applied random keum-boo patches to his corrugated, oxidised silver work, which reflect a “spontaneous moment”. The result was a striking contrast between black and gold. While Zhang has also noticed growing awareness of keum-boo in the past few years, Waterhouse is at pains to point out that people often don’t recognise his work as silver. his use of Keum-boo, he says, “is a bit deceptive. But I quite like that”.Goldsmiths’ Fair runs from September 24 to October 6. For details: goldsmithsfair.co.ukFind out about our latest stories first — follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram
