Salmon the staff of life

 

 red gold salmon hand carved bracelet by Owen Walker

red gold salmon

These two designs are a celebration of the salmon that sustain life and culture on the North West Coast.  We who live here often take the salmon for granted just as people in other places may take their daily bread for granted.  Salmon may not be quite as important to our diet as in former centuries, but we still depend on them for our food, our recreation and for many of us our livelihood.  The annual smoking of salmon is still a big event in the Walker Goldsmiths’ family.

Sterling Sockeye Bracelet Hand Carved by Owen Walker

Owen Walker Hand Carved Sterling Sockeye Bracelet

The large bracelet is not made of copper.  It is an alloy of 58.5 parts pure gold and 41.5 parts pure copper that makes it 14 Karat gold, redder than the pink gold that is available commercially, but still 14 Karat gold that does not tarnish.  Both of these salmon are females or hens as the steelhead fishermen call them and they are full of eggs ready to create the next run of the “staff of life”.  The smaller one is done in sterling silver.  It is a fun bracelet with Mama Sockeye swimming around your wrist looking for a place to lay her eggs.  A profile design with the source of life on the North West Coast circling, full of eggs, sustaining you in all you do!

Here is a favorite way to use smoked salmon in our family.  Take one large sweet yellow onion, chop it into the blender with a pint of sour cream, add a couple dashes of Frank’s Red Hot, and liquefy it.  Warm up about a pound of cream cheese so you can stir it and add the liquefied onion mix, then add a small side of smoked sockeye salmon mashed up in your hands into tiny bits.  I don’t use the skin.  Put it in the fridge for a couple of hours if you can wait that long, and use it as a dip for crackers, sourdough bread, corn chips, pilot bread, or fingers, I suppose you could eat it with a spoon, but I don’t think it would taste as good.

 

Hand carved sterling silver bracelet by Owen Walker .5 inch

 

D48 Sockeye $250.00

D8  Salmon 14K red gold Price on request.

About Owen Walker

2 Responses to “Salmon the staff of life”

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  1. Janet Walker says:

    and I always love to add fresh parsley, yummy and pretty. This IS a standard in the Walker household!!

  2. Jessica says:

    Tummy’s rumblin’ now! I need to go to the store and get some cream cheese and make this. Like NOW!!!!!
    Beautiful bracelets. Just lovely.

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