Many of the silver beads and charms I use in my jewellery are made by the Karen Hill Tribe peoples in northern Thailand. These fantastic artisans create all their silver products by hand using traditional techniques of silver smithing, which have been handed down the generations for literally centuries! They use a really high content of silver in their finished product, usually 928% or 999% silver in 100 parts metal (slightly more than sterling silver, which is 925% silver in 1000 parts of metal). I sourced these beads and pendants myself on a recent trip to Thailand, and was lucky enough to see the craftspeople at work. Truly awesome!

The heavier individual pendants/charms have been hallmarked with my own maker’s mark AA (from my original range Amazella), which was stamped at the Birmingham Assay Office.