AS JESSIE KOH switched from her front- to back-facing cellphone camera, I leaned in closer to my laptop screen for a virtual tour of her studio in Kuala Lumpur. Rolling mills. Heavy hammers. Blowtorches with oxygen tanks. These were just some of the equipment necessary for bringing delicate silver jewellery to life, inspired by Asian natural and cultural heritage in general, and her Peranakan Chinese heritage in particular. These pieces, from the hands of one of Malaysia’s few female silversmiths, are available for sale through Jessie’s Trinket Trove and JK Gems, where skillfully fashioned rings, necklaces and pendants await buyers with discerning taste. I spoke with Jessie to find out how and why she became a silversmith, what entrepreneurship in the jewellery industry looks like and her hopes for the craft’s future.
REDISCOVERING CRAFT
Jessie grew up surrounded by craftsmanship. “My father, who served in the army, would build furniture and do carpentry at home, and I would help out. My mother was a housewife, and she worked with fabric, sewing clothes and crocheting,” Jessie began. “One fond memory I will always remember is making [my own] dresses with my mother. We’d pick out the fabrics, take my measurements, and I would help with the simpler parts of sewing the dress.” Inspiration did not start and end with family members alone. In the evenings, RTM aired two-minute segments on art and culture. Jessie remembered being mesmerised by how traditional crafts such as keris and wau were fabricated, which further fuelled her interest in artisanal work.
Although Jessie went on to build a career in the corporate sector, specifically in telecommunications, her desire to create art kept brewing. As she tinkered with various crafts between jobs, she found herself gradually drawn to fashioning jewellery even as she continued climbing the corporate ladder. By the end of her 20-year stint, she had received accolades and recognition for her work. Yet Jessie’s long-term plan was always to return to, and create, something with her hands.
She finally took a leap of faith and left her career altogether. “My parents were concerned about whether I’d have any work to do, naturally. But my colleagues and friends celebrated. They knew first-hand how work stress can eat you up,” she said, remembering the burnout that she experienced at work.
Jessie enthusiastically began her new trajectory with metalsmithing, using bronze, brass and copper as raw materials. She learned to melt, shape and cut metal into jewellery, marking the start of her jewellery business, Jessie’s Trinket Trove. Eventually, she picked up more robust techniques to create higher-quality pieces made only with silver. Jessie’s Trinket Trove laid the groundwork for JK Gems, marketed as an outlet for more refined artisanal silver jewellery. Each piece takes up to several weeks to create and tells a story in the process. “I always knew [that] I wanted to create pieces that would last, something that would grow old with you,” Jessie said.
SUSTAINING AND RENEWING SILVERSMITHING
In the past, silversmiths were not primarily jewellers, but worked on larger pieces of silverware such as keris and trophies. However, rapidly changing commodity prices have rendered larger items unaffordable. “With the increasing price of silver, the artisans are making fewer large piece. Today we can only afford to make smaller jewellery pieces that people will want to wear,” Jessie said. The increasing precarity of the craft also means that she is part of a small community of active practitioners. According to a Kraftangan Malaysia and Tradisi Busana PR Sdn Bhd study, there were already fewer than 40 silversmiths working nationwide in 2018, marking a huge drop from the 200 or so artisans active in 1995.[1] Silversmithing is now under threat due to a lack of customer appreciation among younger gen-erations and fierce competition with cheaper, albeit lower-quality, mass-market alternatives.
Jessie is fully committed to investing equal energy and enthusiasm in keeping silversmithing alive, both as a desirable commodity and a repository of heritage. This is where her corporate background becomes use-ful. Engaging in traditional crafts today is not merely about replicating established techniques, but revisit-ing them as art—a serious creative endeavour. And the silversmith cannot just be an artisan, but must also be actively involved in reinventing tradition, becoming a bastion of knowledge and serving as a one-person sales and marketing team. Aside from designing and creat-ing pieces, Jessie also runs her own booths at pop-up markets. If you visit them, you will likely see her in action with her equipment, shaping her next piece as she awaits customers.
Her jewellery is fashioned at her studio in Plaza Damas, My Artisan Hub, which has become more than just a functional workspace. Not content with making and selling jewellery alone, she also runs on-site workshops to teach others the art of metalsmithing. “I encourage peo-ple to step out of their comfort zones and make their own jewellery. It’s a time-consuming process, which is perfect for those who want to slow down,” she explained. Her one-day workshops are designed for beginners, while the six-day boot camps cater to more serious learners.
“There’s a lot to manage in my work, and it still gets stressful, but at least I’m doing what I love, which makes it feel less like work and more like personal fulfilment,” she said. “After all, making art is how we remember we’re alive.”
*Note: Learn more about Jessie’s Trinket Trove at https://www.instagram.com/trinktrove/?hl=en, JK Gems at https://www.jk-gems.com/ and My Artisan Hub at https://myartisanhub.com.my/.
ENDNOTE
- Described in: Today Online. (2018, December 8). “Saving Kelantan’s silversmiths... with handmade shoes.” https://www.todayonline.com/world/saving-kelantans-silversmiths-handmade-shoes.
