Jock Favour
An Arizona native, Jock Favour is well known for his old-style jewelry that pays tribute to the classic techniques of Native American jewelry-making. Jock achieves the antique look of his jewelry by combining older stones with ingot silver to create heavy, beautiful pieces. He describes his technique as follows:
“I first carve tufa stone molds and melt sterling silver to pour into those molds. Most of my bracelets are made from square ingot bars, which are then hand-hammered or forged into the desired shape and thickness. These techniques were used historically during the period of 1868-1930.”
The first ingots that were cast from silver were the U.S. and Mexican coins. Coin silver is 90% pure, while sterling silver is 92.5% pure. I have melted coins and find no difference in the ‘look’ from sterling silver. The mellowness of old coin silver comes from wear and oxidation. “When I use ingot bars it allows me total flexibility of size and shape. It is a time-consuming technique not unlike a weaver hand-spinning her wool into yarn, but the look and feel of the pieces is worth the effort.”
Jock comes from an artistic family with a love of the outdoors. He lives in Prescott, Arizona with his wife, Deborah.
