As the price of gold surges to record levels amid economic uncertainty, a Durham metalsmith says customers for the jewelry he makes have not turned away.
Ken Weston is the chief goldsmith at Hamilton Hill Jewelry in Durham where he’s worked for the past seven years.
His career, spanning 50 years, started when his dad gave him some tools back home in Long Island.
“I made (hair clips) in the late 60s and sold at the flea markets,” Weston said. “They were very popular. They’re what launched this whole thing.”
His career took many turns — at one point traveling cross-country in a VW van turned into a camper complete with a workbench. Later, he worked in a pawn shop.
Now, in between repairs and customer orders at Hamilton Hill, he also designs his own pieces. Even as the cost of making jewelry rises.
“We have one designer in Brazil that we can’t get stuff from anymore because we have a 50 percent tariff on that stuff. It puts more demand on what I produce because we can’t source that,” Weston said. “Pieces of jewelry get more expensive because of it but people haven’t stopped buying.”
At his workbench on a weekday afternoon Weston worked on one of his more popular designs — a wood-inlaid wedding band from his “Timbers” collection.
He made one of the first pieces for himself 12 years ago, a nod to his father’s career as a fine furniture maker.
“I think there are about 50 of (the rings) out there,” Weston said. “It’s been really successful, people wear them and they wear them for years and years.”
Hamilton Hill owner Sarah Hill says Weston’s creativity and dedication is why she decided to hire him after decades of friendship.
The youngest smith in the shop is Kai Hill — no relation to Sarah Hill. Kai apprenticed under Weston and now runs her own jewelry business alongside the work she does at the shop.
“He’s a brilliant mind, so I’m very lucky to work with him,” Kai Hill said.
As part of her business, Kai uses Instagram to promote her work — a digital showroom of sorts. But she said customers — in the shop or online — are not looking for dupes or AI.
They want the real thing made by real people.
“It could have been a dying art and it’s really having a comeback,” Kai Hill said. “As things get more techy, people always want to see what the opposite of that is as well.”
Neither she nor Weston worry about technology’s impact on the work that they do.
“Handwork is never going to go away,” Weston said.
Ken Weston is turning 80 later this month and said he has no plans to retire.