A British Craft Trade Fair regular, Silverkupe, is now going to have a Pop-Up shop at John Lewis, Newcastle. The John Lewis Pop-Up initiative is managed by The Great British Pop-Up on behalf of John Lewis.
Silverkupe offers unique handmade art-jewellery for discerning clients. Emine, the person behind Silverkupe, started her jewellery journey in 2017 as a second career and never looked back. Originally from Istanbul, she lives in Whitley Bay and creates her contemporary jewellery from the BBox Studios in Ouseburn, the artistic engine-room of Newcastle.
Emine has been living in the UK since 1999 and the name ‘Silverkupe’ encapsulates her background and her future. ‘Küpe’ means an earring in Turkish.
Since the beginning of her creative journey, Emine has always been fascinated by colour, texture and form. She uses a combination of techniques in her creations, such as traditional silversmithing, metal clay, and sculptural and enamelling techniques. She seeks to bring together the individual characteristics of different materials and techniques to construct unmistakable pieces. Colour plays an important role in her designs also. Emine achieves deep blacks by selective oxidisation, intense blues and reds by vitreous enamels, and adds indulgence to her designs with 24k gold-accents. Her pieces get hallmarked at the Edinburgh Assay Office.
She currently has four collections within her portfolio, Colour Seeds, Dotty, Simplicity and Half & Half that reflects her unique design. You can find her art-jewellery in fourteen galleries and gift shops across the UK and on her website.
Speaking about life as a designer-maker and her business values, Emine said: “Jewellery and precious metals play an important role in traditional Turkish culture. Just have a look at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul! This culture is embedded in me. I am also fascinated by how silver, and indeed gold, can be endlessly recycled, and how every bit of discarded metal can eventually be turned into a beautiful piece. I use eco-friendly jewellery presentation boxes and my postage material is all recycled.”
Emine loves teaching and enjoys seeing people developing and finding out what they are cable of doing. She gives jewellery-making workshops at her studio. These are currently one-to-one only. Workshops from her range are proving to be popular gifts. You can select from six different workshops, ranging from introductory silverclay to more advanced silversmithing techniques.
