Glenmoriston Gold & Silversmiths
From Moriston Matters Issue 14, August 1979
It's almost a year now since I last wrote for "Moriston Matters" at which time I found it difficult to write and explain to other people just what Glenmoriston Gold & Silversmiths are, as at that moment, I was not quite sure myself. From that time, how to design the jewellery began to take on a completely new aspect, a completely new range of jewellery original to the known market. Would we make it traditional, modern, what sort of dimensions would we use, large, intricate, or would we use a totally new aspect in using the beautiful Highland scenery surrounding us at Invermoriston, the trees, the rock formation, the flora and fauna indigenous to this Highland landscape? At this time, Bill Bedford and myself found ourselves with a mutual love of trees and especially wood with varied textures and colours. This made up our minds for us; we decided to produce a small range of silver and wood jewellery. The wood we used was the silver birch from the hillsides surrounding our homes. We found that this wood proved to be very popular not only in our own showroom, but with other shops we deal with throughout Britain, and not only the British market warmed to our Highland jewellery, but the French and Belgian markets as well. The wood combined well with our jewellery range of owls, dragonflies, mice, grouse, pheasant, stags and woodland scenes.
Our jewellery summer school is also gaining momentum. Our students particularly enjoy being able to work alongside production jewellers. They like meeting local people and seeing the Highland beauty. The jewellery craft courses have also been a success abroad with applications from France and Holland and even as far away as Africa.
I feel confident in saying that Glenmoriston Gold & Silversmiths have made a name for themselves in the jewellery trade after only sixteen months of actual trading. I am sure that we can expect better and bigger things to happen in the next few years. I would also like to acknowledge the participation of local people who buy our jewellery and then bring their friends back to see what their local jewellery company can do.
R.M. (Robin MacKie)