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Transformation Mask Ring

14kt Gold Raven Transformation Mask Ring

This is our Transformation Mask Ring displayed in the winter show at the Stonington Gallery by Walker Goldsmiths. Owen and I made this custom creation for a client. It is a 14kt yellow gold Human Face with 2 – 8pt. Diamonds for eyes. I carved the wax sculpture and Owen cast the ring, assembled it and set the diamonds. A Raven mask is hinged over the Human Face. Human hands carved inside the Raven mask symbolize Raven’s ability to transform from Human to Raven and back. Raven in the natural world exhibits many human characteristics like survival, curiosity, feistiness, greed and a general rambunctious nature.

14kt Yellow Gold Man and Raven Transformation Mask Ring with 2-8pt. diamonds

In the winter longhouse dances and gatherings Transformation Masks are used to tell stories of these characteristics and transformations from human to animal or bird. In some of the dances it’s quite remarkable to watch the dancer imitate a Raven’s walk, voice, mannerisms, and then dramatically the mask opens to reveal a human being. Then suddenly the whole dance changes to human characteristics; movements and voice. Our friend Gene Tagaban, native Tlingit storyteller, musician, and educator, dances an incredible Raven. If you ever get to see him dance with his Raven costume and mask you won’t forget it. Raven is one of the two moieties of the Tlingit and Haida people, the other being Eagle.

“With the Winter Solstice looming, the time for ceremony and gathering begins on the Pacific Northwest Coast. Masks danced by firelight illuminate the darkness and engage our imaginations with stories, myths and magic.”

Open view of 14kt yellow gold Raven Transformation Mask Ring

Open view of Raven Transformation Mask Ring

Transformation Mask Ring by Owen and Janet Walker, Walker Goldsmiths.

Custom Celtic Knot Ring

Written by Janet Walker · Leave a Comment

14kt Yellow gold custom made Celtic Knot ring.

November has been a busy month at Walker Goldsmiths with Custom Rings. This Celtic Knot Ring is a beautiful remembrance ring commissioned by a special customer. It was made for a grandfather in remembrance of his beautiful first grandchild that passed away. Her name is carved inside the ring.

This 14kt gold ring is 7mm wide with a comfort fit shape inside. The carved continuous Celtic Knot pattern is raised and two “ropes” wrap around the whole of the ring and are never ending. The symbolism of the Celtic design is exactly that; never ending, eternal love. There are many varieties of Celtic knots some made with one “rope” some with two or even five or six, but if you trace a “rope” you will get back to the beginning, symbolizing eternity. These patterns were first used in religious art, both Christian and Pagan, to symbolize the eternal nature of the spirit and of love.

It has been a privilege and honor at Walker Goldsmiths to be a part of this eternal love symbol.

White and Yellow Gold Lovebirds Custom Wedding Band

Written by Janet Walker · 8 Comments

Lovebirds wedding band in white and yellow gold

A Lovebirds Custom Wedding Band has been exceptionally fun for Walker Goldsmiths to create for a customer. I carved the middle band in wax and we cast it using the traditional lost wax technique. Here are two pictures of the Lovebirds Ring that we just finished and delivered to a friend to represent the love he has for his lady. The center cast band is 14kt White Gold with an Eagle and a Raven on either side of an 18kt Gold Sun. The side bands are each 18kt Yellow Gold. The whole width of the band is 10 mm.

“Among the Tlingit and Haida peoples of Alaska there are only two moieties, the Ravens and the Eagles. The gift often given was a silver or gold bracelet, hand-carved with the symbol of both moieties, the Eagle and the Raven, hence Love Birds. This custom is very much alive and flourishing on the North West Coast and is the most frequently requested design Owen carves. We often use the word clan rather that moiety, but the correct term is moiety. When a man meets a woman he is interested in, the first question asked is usually “Are you Raven or Eagle? If both are Eagles or Ravens they are as brother and sister, and the relationship dies right there, but if one is Raven and one Eagle sparks may fly!” Owen Walker wrote this for his Lovebirds Bracelet, it applies for a ring as well and we think it’s a great idea.

Diamond dew drop wedding band

Written by Janet Walker · 7 Comments

14kt yellow gold leaf pattern wedding ring with 28 dewdrop diamonds

Post #1…This wedding ring is one of our projects at Walker Goldsmiths Studio for this coming week all accomplished through communication by email and telephone with our customer living in another state.

Wax carving of leafy wedding ring.

Pictured is a wax carving of the leafy wedding ring that Janet carved and Owen will cast in 14kt yellow gold. This ring is designed to be set with a generous sprinkling of Diamonds nestled in each leaf on the top half of the ring. The ring is 7mm wide with a comfort fit shape on the inside of the band. The 2mm thickness of the center of the band makes it very handy to recess and bead set a plethora of little diamonds all over the leaves. I think it’s going to look like lovely dewy drops sparkling in the morning sun.

Post # 2…Here’s 2 pictures of our 14kt leaf pattern wedding band with 28 dewdrop diamonds set in the delicate folds of the leaves. The ring by Walker Goldsmiths is delivered and the happy couple are looking forward to their wedding day. Right, JD and Emily?

14kt yellow gold leaf pattern wedding ring with 28 dewdrop diamonds

Salmon the staff of life

Written by Owen Walker · 2 Comments

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.

“Made in the U.S.A.”

Written by Janet Walker · 1 Comment

Made in the USA -Owen hand carving Sterling Bracelet

Every winter Owen Walker & I take orders for our jewelry at the Seattle Wholesale Gift Show. Retail Shop & Gallery owners from the northwest and beyond attend the show. They see our newest jewelry pieces and we take their orders then go back to our studio and work like mad to fill those orders so those folks can make their customers happy. This 2011 show was interesting in that a lot of folks were definitely looking for and buying “Made in the USA” merchandise. We can accommodate that desire! Owen’s carving away on new pieces and we’re planning and developing additions to a few of our steady Silver Jewelry lines. Adam Mills is also working hard to have new Bronze sculptures available from Walker Bronze. Our Sterling Silver and Gold jewelry as well as our newest Bronze Sculpture line is ALL made by us in our studio in the good ‘ol USA. We sure don’t mind selling to folks out of this country, in fact we’re proud to have pieces of our jewelry and sculpture in many foreign countries, but it’s all made by hand by us at Walker Goldsmiths here in the USA.

Adam Mills molding clay sculptures for bronze casting

Adam Mills molding sculptures for Bronze casting

Big Wolf Handcarved Bracelet

Written by Owen Walker · 4 Comments

Hand carved sterling silver big wolf bracelet with abalone inlay.

Wolf is an enigmatic character on the North West Coast because there is not a great body of Wolf stories as there are for Eagle and Raven. On Haida Gwaii the Wolf was only known from hearsay as there were no wolves on those islands, but the Wolf was an important family crest of the Raven Clan.

When I lived in Palmer, AK our house was west of town right on the river bank. On still winter nights I would often hike out on the river flats where I could hear the wolf pack that lived on the other side of the river. I would sing back to them and they would answer for a while. They would stop after an hour or so, I guess they thought I wasn’t that good of a singer or didn’t have much to say!

There is another mythical character that this bracelet could represent and that is Wasco, the Sea Wolf, which is an Eagle family crest. The Wasco was a giant sea wolf that caught and ate whales usually depicted as a wolf with a dorsal fin. If you are a Raven this is a wolf, if you are an Eagle this is Wasco, either way it brings a fierce protective spirit to your wrist. I have had no personal experience with a Wasco but that does not mean they do not exist.

I have found over the years that certain people are attracted to certain animals, this is often a mystery to me as I grew up in the bush and speak Raven as well as my physical limitations allow. I often think that if these people knew the animals that they feel an affinity for they would not be so enthusiastic about them. I am probably wrong! I have known three packs of wolves very well and I do not like wolves at all. Wolf song can still bring a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye. I never claimed to be a rational being!

Hand carved sterling silver big wolf bracelet with abalone inlay

Hand carved by Owen Walker 1.25 inches tapering to .75 inch

D7 Big wolf With abalone inlay $700.00

Large Orca Bracelet

Written by Owen Walker · Leave a Comment

Sterling silver hand carved big Orca bracelet

Hand Carved Sterling Silver Orca Bracelet

Orcas have shown great reasoning capabilities and creative thinking in encounters with humans. I have had many encounters with Orcas myself having been a commercial gillnet fisherman in my early years. I have never found a reliable story of an Orca harming a human in the wild. I did see a large male take revenge on a fisherman who shot at him as he picked fish from the gillnet. The fisherman put a hole in the orca’s dorsal fin so the orca went under water and went back and forth like a sewing needle through the gillnet, until there was not a 50 foot rag left to fish with, then disappeared!

The Haida and Tsimsian people tell of one man, Nanasymgyet, whose wife was kidnapped by the Chief of the Orcas, who took her to his village at the bottom of the sea. He eventually got her back after many adventures, and help from some unlikely friends. As time permits we will post this and other stories, on this site. This is one of my

Hand carved Sterling Silver Orca Bracelet

designs that does not get an abalone inlay. I have always been fascinated by Orcas, so much so that I don’t remember the occasion that prompted me to design this bracelet, but it must have been a good one!

Sterling Silver Handcarved Big Orca Bracelet

Hand-carved Sterling Silver Big Orca Bracelet by Owen Walker, 1.5 inch width tapering to 1 inch.

D6 Big Orca price: $650.00

Goldsmiths Invented Recycling

Written by Owen Walker · Leave a Comment

photo of goldsmith surrounded by the green recycling symbol

Goldsmith’s Invented Recycling

Everybody knows that “green” means environmentally savvy and we like to practice those behaviors in our Studio. In our modern age we like to think we invented all the really good things of the world. We have plastics, cars, airplanes, computers, and all kinds of modern marvels that make our life easier and/or better. We can generate electricity from falling water, wind or the sun, and use it to light and heat our homes and to do our work. We can send messages over the internet around the world at the speed of light. We are pretty smart because we have also learned to reuse a lot of these things so we won’t run out of them. When did you first hear the word “recycle”? If you are young you may have had to take the recycling to the curb along with the garbage, if you are older you may have learned about it in school, and if you are really ancient you may have heard about recycling in the 1980’s or even the 1970’s.

I first began to recycle as an apprentice goldsmith in the early 1980’s. I learned the history of my art as I learned the techniques of a goldsmith. One system of behavior I had to perfect is how to recycle even the smallest particle of gold. I think you would be amazed at the things we keep in our studio. Do you keep the dirt that you vacuum up off your floor? What happens to the water that you wash your hands with? In Faberge’s workshops in St. Petersburg, Russia all the workers were required to wash their hands in a barrel of water and to comb out their hair and beards before they went home! We really do keep the dirt off our floor! Last time I sent it to the refiners I got back about 22 ounces of silver and 1.4 ounces of gold. Today’s price makes that worth $776.38 and $2,440.09 respectively! When you come to our booth at the Seattle Gift Show look for our sign; Goldsmiths invented Recycling 10,000 years ago! How green can you be?

Anita’s Trade Bead Bracelet and Earrings

Written by Janet Walker · Leave a Comment

photo of Sterling and Trade Bead Bracelet and Earrings

Anita’s Sterling and Trade Bead Bracelet and Earrings

These Trade Beads were so fun to work with and construct into a bracelet for my dear friend. Anita saw a bracelet that she fell in love with so I asked her to send me a picture of the bracelet. She liked the patterns and balance of semi precious beads to sterling silver beads, so I suggested we use some ancient trade beads and give the design some oomph!

Anita is a beautiful Nordic gal and can wear the lovely creamy, sunny colors of Mastodon Ivory, Coral, Amber and Turquoise. I will even go so far as to say she is a definite “Summer” in the fashion color scheme. I had to stick in some antique glass trade beads because I love them so and assuage my need to infuse spirit into the piece. Trade beads always reek with it! It’s the history of every single bead that just comes with the bead. The oldest of the beads on the piece are probably the Amber bead or the Mastodon Ivory disk bead, but who knows when the Turquoise was created??? That aside, the oldest glass bead is probably the black striped bead from Mesopotamia. On the heels of that are the millefiori (“thousand flowers’) bead made for the African trade, the Amber glass melon shape bead and the green opaque glass bead possibly made in the 1600’s in Venice, at that time the undisputed world capital of glass. The green melon chevrons also were made pre-1800. Really the only modern beads on the bracelet are the Sterling beads and the clasp. Next was to design and construct some dangle earrings with similar beads and color scheme. I think it is mission accomplished in the trade bead category.