Our 75th Anniversary celebration continues as we introduce you, department by department, to what makes our business grow and thrive in 2024. In addition to our expanding offerings of silver bullion, we have also pursued more and more enameled options for our customers over the last few years and more specifically, this year. Why? Our hand painted designs add even more impact to your silver purchases, whether they are for a personal collection or for gifting to someone else. We know what a pop of color can do in the world, and that is why we choose to add to our list of enameled options year after year with no intention of slowing down.
Behind all the enameled designs are our in-house SilverTowne artists who work on your pieces year-round, or as they like to put it, get to “color all day.” And when we say they are hand painted one-by-one, each time a customer orders, we mean it. There is no fast-paced machine that coats the bullion and moves on. Each hand-painted piece is unique, and no two pieces are ever exactly alike. Our small but mighty enameling team details each silver round or bar that comes through to ensure our customers get what they pay for.
Shawnda and Val – Enamellers
With a total of around six years' experience, the girls in enameling see and touch every painted piece that ships from our building daily. As the design team finishes up the bullion details and creates a colorized mockup of their vision of the colors, they collaborate with Shawnda and Val to achieve the best possible product for our customers.
“We are given the specifications and then we go to work on mixing and finalizing the colors,” Shawnda said. “We must keep in mind, with the designers as well, the number of colors being used, the variations of them meaning dark, medium, or light, where the colors touch, etc.”
“Sometimes they ask for specific details like glitter in certain areas or to coat the whole design in a clear coat with glitter,” Val stated. “There are a lot of specific details to consider when you go from a mockup to the finalized version. It does not always work, but a lot of the time it does. That process in between is extremely important.”
After the designs are presented with their specifications, the sample process ensues, and this is when Val and Shawnda get to make suggestions and changes based off their testing period.
“We really try to use our best judgement and experience to make sure that if something does or does not work, we can make something else happen,” Shawnda stated. “We might suggest a lighter or darker color or even a completely different color depending on the design.”
“Sometimes we even let them know that maybe a more transparent paint as opposed to a solid one, or vice versa, would work out better,” Val added. “It really depends on the design.”
In the last few years, and really this year, we have worked on expanding our enameled options as we have made it a consistent priority to keep growing as a business.
“In years past, we really just enameled a few Christmas pieces, Valentine’s Day, Easter, some Halloween, and the Roses,” Shawnda said. “Now we do Silver Eagles, birthday pieces, the flower collection which added daisies and sunflowers, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, and more of the Halloween collection than usual. Oh, and graduation.”
Very recently, we’ve added a custom enameling option to our Graduation-themed medallion. This option gives our customers the ability to fully customize their gift of silver for the graduate by choosing school colors. Shawnda and Val were initially presented with the idea, and both worked diligently with the design team to figure out paint schemes for the customizable areas of the medallion. From just 12 basic school colors, it was determined that over 100 color combinations could be offered for the made-to-order piece. Customers have given the stamp of approval, and, after a second successful year, this popular tailor-made option will continue.
Our biggest collection and most popular is Christmas. A year-round effort, concepts and designs of the collection begin just months after the dies are cut for the current year pieces. For the girls in enameling, they start working on Christmas pieces in February and proceed all year long.
“I think last year we had just four pieces from the Christmas collection that we painted. This year it’s 10, so we have really started to offer more and more.”
“And we like that,” Val added. “It’s good for the business that we continue to add more and more enameled pieces.”
On a personal note, the girls that paint our silver get a perk that most do not.
“I paint a birthday piece for my granddaughter every year that is just hers,” Shawnda said. “It’s special just for her, so no one will ever get a similar one. I also do Christmas and more for her too.”
“I actually did a wedding piece as a wedding gift for someone that we don’t offer as far as colors go,” Val said. “It turned out really pretty and it’s nice to be able to do that for someone.”
As we keep growing as a business in our 75th year and beyond, we know that enameling will always be a very important part of what we do.
“I think it’s a nice choice for customers when they buy their silver to have it enameled,” Val said. “Yes, they are a little more money, but you cannot beat the instant impact they make appearance wise. Enameled silver really is a great gift for someone.”
