Jewellers Turn to Bronze as Gold Prices Soar

The high price of gold has led some jewellers to turn to other metals for their designs. According to British goldsmith Joy Bonfield-Colombara, founder of Joy BC, gold's astronomical expense has shifted its perception and wearability.

Jeweller Cora Sheibani has been working with bronze since the founding of her eponymous fine jewellery label in 2002. She found that modern bronze contains a small amount of silica to slow chemical reactions, which can make patinas superficial and wear away faster than on antique pieces.

Bonfield-Colombara discovered Japanese metal patination while studying at the Glasgow School of Art and was inspired by an Edo-period katana decorated with insects in bone, wood, coral, and bronze. She later returned to the technique during a Royal College of Art fellowship at Kyoto's oldest art school.

The Gaze series, made for a Kyotographie festival exhibition, features two bronze brooches that draw on 18th century European tradition of lovers' eye jewellery. One uses an Eastern patina with hazel diamonds, the other a verdigris finish associated with classical Italian and Greek sculpture.