The Hindu Business Line : Silver moments

The most interesting product this season comes with several years of research — it's silversmithy, a technique of ancient Japan that Ravissant has perfected for exclusive products. The technique, known as Mokume Gane, fuses layers of different metal and silver to give a variety of products natural shades of rust and green, along with the silver. Used to advantage, it can give subtle and delicate design touches to silver.

Ravi Chawla, Managing Director, Ravissant, says, "The art of making Mokume Gane was known to just a few families in Japan, and the metal was used for making jewellery. However, even the Japanese have lost the technique."

The first recorded mention of the technique in the West is in 1886 by Raphael Pampelly in the American Journal of Sciences. In notes on Japanese alloy, it is stated: "Beautiful damask work is produced by soldering together, one over the other in alternative order, 30 to 40 sheets of gold, shakudo, silver, rose, copper and gin shibuichi... ."

And this is exactly what Chawla's team at Ravissant did. They started to work on Mokume Gane in 1999, and after a period of four years achieved an almost perfect billet consisting of silver, copper, bronze, brass and shibuichi. They admit that the technique is rather difficult to perfect, as the whole process of binding the metals is prone to failure when the finished product is finally being soldered.

"Anyone familiar with this technique, knows the amount of labour that goes in to it. We have made sheets up to 128 layers," they say. The Ravissant Mokume Gane collection offers both decorative and useable products. Designers from Australia have worked on the collection that comprises glasses for vodka and water, caviar sets, rice bowls, cups and spoons for babies, cuff links and a collection of pooja items.

According to Chawla, the investment into the new technique has been "30 to 40 lakh in terms of material". He sees great market potential in it, and would like to experiment using gold as well.

In fact, Ravissant has applied for its patent worldwide, and intends to show it off at Ambiante, the international fair in Frankfurt, in February. Thereafter, Chawla would like to show it in Japan.

This festive season, Ravissant is also offering collections in sterling silver. `The Raj' and bidri collections have been designed by a German designer who has worked on a collection of silver flower vases, silver fruit dishes, candy bowls, candlestands with bidri bases, all reminiscent of the grandeur of nawabs and maharajas.

The company has also involved traditional craft persons from Orissa and Bengal who are experts at filigree work. For this collection, they have done their fine filigree work in silver. Meanwhile, the other store depending on silverware to make a dent during the festive season is north-India based Amrapali.

Known for its artefacts, it offers what it calls an "archival collection", where there is a reinventing of old idioms and techniques that were used by silversmiths in ancient India. The Amrapali collection includes carved idols with fine detailing in silver, antique traditional diyas, candle-stands with tribal motifs, puja thalis, pitaras with filigree and so on.

Silverware has other milestones too. Such as Episode, a lifestyle store with a lot of silverware, started a few years ago by the well-known House of Whorras that had its roots firmly fixed a hundred years ago in the country.

From a small outfit in Peshawar cantonment that supplied silverware to European army units, it has turned into a modern lifestyle shop, with virtually all silver-plated and sterling products on its shelves. Here again, tea sets and candle stands in classic silver and Art Deco modes could be handpicked as gifts.

So, go ahead, add silver moments to your festive celebrations.

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