Albion Smith

Albion Smith is a California jeweller and silversmith known for ornate functional items, including a piece in the Smithsonian Institution.

Biography

Smith's work includes a combination of jewelry (rings, bracelets, pendants) and functional objects such as teapots, goblets, flasks, urns and keepsake boxes. He designs, forms and fabricates each of his works by hand. The patterns of ornamentation in his works are frequently cut from silver sheet and soldered or annealed to base plate. The surfaces of his works often feature applied patinas or hammered textures. Many of his works are adorned with semi-precious or precious stones, bone, horn, and even ancient mastodon tusk from glacier-finds in Alaska and Siberia.

In 1996, one of his teapots was made part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, DC.

He is married to Elissa Forsyth and lives in Northern California near Santa Cruz.