I love doing custom orders from silverware that has a special meaning to my customers!
Unfortunately, I cannot always accept the commission.
Before I agree to create the specialty piece, I need to know more about the utensil I have been asked to transform. The most important being, "what material is the fork/spoon made from?" You see, different metals are easier for me to work with than others.
The 2 most common metals silverware is made from are stainless steel (think the silverware you use to eat dinner every night!) and silverplated (think grandma's good silverware).
The easiest to identity is stainless steel, because most often they are marked "stainless" on the back of the forks and spoons.
Identifying silverplated silverware is a little more complex. They, too, have markings, but there are numerous markings that are used:
- silverplate
- Tudor plated
- A1
- Community
- Triple Plated
- IS
are just a few. There are many, many more.
As expected, stainless steel is much more difficult to work with, especially to bend. Because of this, I rarely can agree to create a custom order from a stainless steel spoon or fork.
Silver plated utensils are what I create all of the pieces on my website from. The base metal, often copper or brass, and the silver plating are softer metals and therefore, much more pliable. That being said, the thickness of the utensil will often determine what I can create from that silverplated piece.
There are so many gorgeous silverware patterns out there and I would love to be able to create stunning silverware jewelry from every piece I came across. Sadly though, because all my work is handcrafted, I am not always strong enough to manipulate the spoon or fork into unique jewelry.