Filigree is an art with a long tradition. It is passed from generation to generation and requires a lot of patience, vision and above all, love in creating. Simple silver wires are intertwined miraculously. Each filigree has a history and heaviness in making it, and each one is unique, unique for its beauty and the mesh of the silver wire.
The main feature of filigree is knitting a very thin, already processed wire called "srma". Sometimes the wire is thin as a fiber. Filigree is considered one of the finest and oldest techniques when it comes to processing of metal. By the mid-nineteenth century, this technique was named as wire-craft or working with wire. In fact, filigree is derived from the Latin words: filum (wire) and granum (grain), indicating the thickness of the wire in the hands of the filigree maker.
Silversmith is an art craft that represents an entire group of trades: silversmith with casting and hammering items, filigree, goldsmith and jewelers. For making filigree is needed the purest silver from 1000 carats which is obtained by refining (hardening) of silver with lower quality.
A number of operations are used for preparation of jewelry, including: whitening (silver jewelry is cleaned, polished), burnishing (cleaning, polishing), gilding (process in covering with gold), molding (process of making molds for casting), tempering (purification of silver for getting more carats), wire spinning (two wires are joined into one) and others.
Filigree in Macedonia had the biggest flourishing in the Middle Ages, reaching its climax in the XVIII century and the first half of XIX century. Craftsmen have a large contribution to the economic development of Macedonia. However, with the introduction of machine-products, there's a sharp decline in filigree too. Serial products are cheaper than handmade. Being in such an unenviable position, in the second half of the XIX century the majority of silversmiths have closed their shops reorienting to other activities or left abroad. Only the stubborn survived, so there are rarely silversmiths in the cities today. In fact, today there are quite a number of filigree and goldsmith stores, but in essence, they are commercial rather than creative shops.
But in the last decade, Crafts Chamber in Skopje is trying to preserve the tradition and culture through the creation of works of art to provide conditions for self-employment. "We want a place to show dexterity, quality, and art. Through filigree, skilled and diligent hands mixed tradition and culture of living with new, modern. People create products that are breathtaking and are a feast for the eyes and soul "- say from the Crafs Chamber in Skopje.The President of the Chamber of Crafts Nikola Petrov added: "We want to preserve tradition and culture through the creation of works of art to provide conditions for self-employment and increasing the standard of living. At the same time, we are organizing the promotion and sale of filigree jewelry, which develops sustainability professions in the field of artistic crafts. Filigree products, in turn, develop the brand in Macedonia which will be recognized in the world".
The main feature of filigree is knitting a very thin, already processed wire called "srma". Sometimes the wire is thin as a fiber. Filigree is considered one of the finest and oldest techniques when it comes to processing of metal. By the mid-nineteenth century, this technique was named as wire-craft or working with wire. In fact, filigree is derived from the Latin words: filum (wire) and granum (grain), indicating the thickness of the wire in the hands of the filigree maker.
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| Filigree jewelry box |
A number of operations are used for preparation of jewelry, including: whitening (silver jewelry is cleaned, polished), burnishing (cleaning, polishing), gilding (process in covering with gold), molding (process of making molds for casting), tempering (purification of silver for getting more carats), wire spinning (two wires are joined into one) and others.
Filigree in Macedonia had the biggest flourishing in the Middle Ages, reaching its climax in the XVIII century and the first half of XIX century. Craftsmen have a large contribution to the economic development of Macedonia. However, with the introduction of machine-products, there's a sharp decline in filigree too. Serial products are cheaper than handmade. Being in such an unenviable position, in the second half of the XIX century the majority of silversmiths have closed their shops reorienting to other activities or left abroad. Only the stubborn survived, so there are rarely silversmiths in the cities today. In fact, today there are quite a number of filigree and goldsmith stores, but in essence, they are commercial rather than creative shops.
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| Filigree jewelry |
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