Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office to hold Jewellery Congress this July

The Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office will be holding an international conference on the 8-9 July 2019, at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

Called ‘The Jewellery Materials Congress’, it will support the jewellery and silverware community by providing a “collaborative, non-commercial forum” to share knowledge and foster technological and operational innovation in materials development. It will be the largest jewellery technology conference held in the UK and the largest specialising in jewellery materials in the world.

The Congress forms part of a series of activities by the Goldsmiths’ Company to “advance and disseminate knowledge and to encourage research and its exploitation in the field of jewellery and silverware technology”. Its aim is to promote participation in new technologies and best practice that will lead to innovative design, improved quality and production efficiency and increase the expertise within the industry.

This new Materials Congress is supported by the internationally renowned Santa Fe Symposium for jewellery manufacturing technology, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, now in its 33rd year.

Deputy Warden, Dr Robert Organ, said: “The Goldsmiths’ Company has always been a leader in the support of the trade, including educational and technological development. To ensure that it maintains relevant and effective in the future, and to place the UK at the cutting edge of new technology, it decided to instigate two game changing activities: Funding, via a gift from the Goldsmiths’ Company Charity, a number of PhD studentships in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge, and this Congress.

“The pool of expertise available to the UK precious metals industry has reduced in recent years, with fewer younger technical experts coming in to the field, and the PHDs and the Congress will help to grow capacity and contribute to the UK’s standing as a centre of excellence.”

Confirmed keynote speakers include:

• Eddie Bell, Rio Grande executive VP Emeritus and co-founder of the Santa Fe Symposium.
• Grant Macdonald, founding director, Grant Macdonald Silversmiths, London UK
• Tim Burstein, professor of materials chemistry and corrosion, University of Cambridge, UK.
• Chris Corti, MD, COReGOLD Technology, Reading, UK