The Scottish market’s willingness to invest of the art of the silversmith makes the country the best global location for a practitioner of the ancient craft, a master Japanese practitioner has said.
Yusuke Yamamoto, who moved to Elderslie from Tokyo three years ago and who lectures at the Glasgow School of Art, told the Sunday Herald that the vibrancy of the Scottish contemporary silversmithing scene enables specialist craftsmen to sustain a commercial enterprise in a way not possible in his native Japan.
“I think there is a revival in this craft in the UK and thanks to the strength of the silversmithing market I came here.” Yamamoto said. “Although I trained in Japan, and was a research associate at Tokyo’s Musashino Art University it is impossible to make a living in Japan, which has virtually no contemporary metalworking tradition.”
Yamamoto has been mentored by Malcolm Appelby (b. 1946), the distinguished English silver engraver with a studio near Aberfeldy. “I talked to him about this and he maybe it’s not exactly easy to live as an individual silversmith in this country, but it’s not impossible, and certainly better than other countries, with the possible exception of the US”.
Currently exhibiting at the National Museum of Scotland as part of the Goldsmith’s Company’s exhibition of modern silver, Yamamoto studied under Japan’s most celebrated silversmith Hiroshi Suzuki. “It was he who told me about the UK market and silversmithing culture.” He was invited by Anna Gordon, Glasgow School of Art’s head of silversmithing and jewellery, then visiting Japan, to become the school’s artist-in-residence. He now teaches the technique of hammer raising, or “stretching” the metal to form bowls and other shapes.
Yamamoto (36), whose wife Satoko teaches jewellery at GSA, exhibits his nature-inspired work at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, as well as with the Goldsmith’s Fair, the annual exhibition of contemporary jewellery and silver in London. His pieces sell from between £900 to £6200.
The Silversmith’s Art: Made in Britain Today at the National Museum “a ground-breaking exhibition celebrates the exceptional creativity and skill which make Britain a world leader in modern silver” continues until 4 January.
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