Ndidi Ekubia is an award-winning silversmith who is well known for using traditional silversmithing techniques to create visually arresting, functional silverware. She studied at the University of Wolverhampton and the RCA and has since exhibited her work internationally at exhibitions such as TEFAF in Maastricht, Masterpiece in London, and the Pavilion of Art & Design in New York. Her pieces are held in numerous public and private collections and her work is currently on display as part of the exhibition Mirror Mirror: Reflections on Design at Chatsworth House. In 2013 the V&A acquired Sparkle Vase by Ekubia, a beautiful glittering liquid-like silver vase. It is currently on display in the museum’s Silver Galleries as part of a temporary display titled Metalworking Now, which celebrates the breadth and diversity of contemporary metalworking. Becky Knott sat down with Ndidi to talk about how she discovered metal as a student, why she loves silver and how she creates her beautiful glistening vessels…
For readers who don’t know you and your work, please can you describe what you do?
I’m a silversmith and have been working with metal since 1996. I studied 3D Design at the University of Wolverhampton before going to Bishopsland Educational Trust (a residential training centre for early career silversmiths and jewellers) for a year, and I then studied for my master’s degree at the Royal College of Art, finishing there in 1998. I make silverware that is functional, and I sell it to people for domestic environments and sometimes it is collected by organisations like the V&A.
Can you describe your workshop?
I’m from Manchester and moved back there just before the pandemic began. My workshop is a typical silversmith’s workshop and so I have a jeweller’s bench and quite a few logs that I attach vices to. The main tools that I use are lots of specialist hammers made from wood and metal, and stakes which are made from steel. These get placed in a vice and then I hammer my work around them, using different shapes and sizes depending on the area that I am working.
Before Manchester I was working in London for almost twenty years. After university I shared a workshop with a friend and during the day I worked for Cookson Gold, a big supplier of precious metals and tools. In the evening I would make my own work and make lots of noise. It was a good time in my life, but I did work all the time!
I then moved to Cockpit Arts in Deptford and had a workshop there. It was great being surrounded by so many different makers. My workshop in Manchester is in an old cotton mill and there are lots of different makers and musicians based there, so you can always hear lots going on. They are all having to get used to my different hammering noises!
How did you get into silversmithing?
I had my first experience with metal when a jeweller came into my school. He showed us a few techniques, let us hammer a piece of metal, and then he soldered our bits together and so we got to see the whole process. I didn’t experience metal again though until I was at university. The course I did at Wolverhampton was three-dimensional design and we worked with wood, metal, and plastics. There was a sound-proof room which had all the hammers and tools that a silversmith would use, and I was completely fascinated by it.
I began by working in copper using a technique called repoussé, which involves hammering decoration into the reserve side of the metal using pitch. Pitch is a thermal adhesive that can be used to support the metal while it is being hammered. This is a messy process that I really didn’t enjoy, so I decided to replace the pitch with a sandbag. I made a massive sandbag from an old leather jacket, and I even dried out the sand to go inside. I was then able to work with wooden hammers to shape the sheet copper, which just kept getting bigger and bigger. I began using chasing (applying decoration to the front of the metal with hammers) to create patterns across the surface of my work. And that was me in metal, I was hooked.
At the end of university, I showed my work at the New Designers Fair (an annual graduate showcase held at the Business Design Centre in Angel in London) and that’s where I heard about Bishopsland and was introduced to working in silver.
So you hadn’t worked in silver before you went to Bishopsland?
No. I got my first commission while I was at Bishopsland for a silver bowl for a family. I then got a commission from Winchester Cathedral for an ablutions bowl and jug, and then I started to make pieces for other clients. I suddenly realised that people were interested in and buying my work. Pope and Oliver Makower (who established Bishopsland Educational Trust thirty years ago) encouraged me to apply to the RCA. I went there and met lots of amazing people like the silversmiths David Watkins, Michael Rowe, John Larkin and the other tutors. They got me to focus on making functional works and I was there for two years.
Why silver? What is it about that material?
Silver is beautiful. There are three different types to work with, each with different percentages of silver to copper: sterling, Britannia, and fine silver. I began using sterling and that is quite springy. I was introduced to Britannia silver much later on and I love it because it has the strength of sterling as well as a softness to it. Britannia is my favourite because it’s just so clean, and when you hammer it the metal moves beautifully and responds really well. Silver also takes on the colours of the room it’s in and what’s going on around it, whether that be the furniture, carpet, windows, or the mirrors. It doesn’t even have to be polished as when it oxidises you get some beautiful colours and then you polish it back up and its silver again. I really enjoy getting pictures from clients showing my work in their house or them using it. I remember each piece as they become attached to moments of my life. They remind you of when you met the client, what we talked about and what they are interested in. I’ve realised that my work becomes a small part of history as it slots into people’s lives, and that is a real honour.
Can you tell me about the process of making one of your pieces?
If it’s a commission, there might be a theme for example a flower or a place and so I’d go out and do the research on it. With my own work I draw a lot and take inspiration from organic patterns. My Mum has always worn amazing African fabrics which have bold, repetitive, and often natural or geometric patterns. I see pattern all around me and enjoy looking at it and getting distracted by the pattern in things like paintings and furniture. They all seep in and I sketch and sketch, slowly turning them into patterns that I can play with and put into my work.
I start making with a flat piece of silver that I raise using hammers and heat into a form. I then smooth or planish the surface with a round faced hammer and draw my sketches onto the object. I then work the surface with different hammers pushing and pulling the material until the final textures are done. It’s all about movement for me as when I was learning about the history of art and design I was always drawn to the movement in a piece. I try to replicate that in my work. The patterns often move from the bottom, round to the top and back into itself, and so the pattern appears to be constantly moving across the object. I’m not interested in symmetry but like my pieces to have different facets, so that they look different from whichever angle you are looking at it.
I understand that function is really important to you- why does this matter?
Well, it was drilled into me while I was at the RCA by one of my tutors, the jeweller David Watkins. He would say “you can’t just have silverware that sits there, it’s got to have a function”. I had trouble with this at first but then found it quite fun to look at different functions and to really be allowed to play with metal.
I like looking at old silverware and studying its function, especially things which don’t relate much to how we live now. I think about what we use today and what functions do we need objects to have? Function for me is how something fits into somebody’s environment. For example, drinking cups are quite popular as you can hold it to you and interact with the surface. Vases are very good because you can leave them empty, or you can fill them with something. I don’t believe silver should just be on display, I think you should be able to pull it out and use it say for toast. It just gives anything that extra oomph! People fill their houses with things they love, but if you can also use them, it enriches your life.
Sparkle Vase (pictured above) was acquired for the V&A collection in 2013. Can you tell me about the making of this piece?
The pattern for this piece started quite upright but as I was making it kept twisting. I decided to push and push and got that great twist into it. When you work metal in a certain way you can pull it out, so I was trying to pull it out and then pull it back in to create the shape at the top. And twist it round at the same time. I really remember that piece. It wasn’t that it did what I expected but it moved well into that form. I like the shape and sense of movement and I hope that people are drawn to it. The hammer that I used was a new hammer at that time; a thin, heavy hammer. It creates really sharp lines and so I was able to use that to get the lovely sparkling, glittering surface. I see the lines on my work as like my handwriting. I use that hammer all the time now, but it was probably one of the first pieces that I got that beautiful sparkle in.
I thoroughly enjoyed making that piece, it was a sort of freedom. The word ‘sparkle’ in the title was as much about the surface as the feeling I got when I was making it, a joyous sparkle.
The combination of silver and your careful mark making means that your pieces catch the light beautifully and can glitter dramatically. This is the case for your current installation as part of the exhibition ‘Mirror Mirror: Reflections On Design’ at Chatsworth House this summer. Can you tell me more about how you prepared for this show?
The curators, Glenn Adamson and Dr Alexandra Hodby, had a very clear idea of where my work should go. I saw the room virtually and there is a beautiful antique mirror on the wall and lots of 18th and 19th century porcelain in there, with different sizes and types of objects. The lighting is quite dark and there are some brilliant reflections in the mirror. The chandelier is decorated with repoussé and so I felt like the space related well to my practice and my beginnings as a silversmith. I decided to create a collection of pieces at different scales to match the groupings or garnitures of ceramics in the room. I wanted my objects to reflect the objects in the room, blurring new and old and the different histories. I am so pleased with how they look, as they really ping when you walk into the room and come to life when the light catches them. The colours of you and the room create beautiful reflections in the pieces.
And so what’s next?
Making new work! I’ve decided not to do anymore exhibitions this year and so I am preparing lots of new work to go to my gallerist Adrian Sassoon. Recently I’ve made a teapot, a jug, and at the moment I’m making some candlestick holders. I’m also making some jewellery which is very new for me, but I like creating forms in metals at different scales.
Bio: Becky Knott is Curator of Metalwork, 1900-Now at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She was previously Lead Curator of V&A East Storehouse, a new research and collections centre in Hackney Wick which opens to the public Easter 2025. Becky has also worked at the British Museum and the Bowes Museum, County Durham.
Bio: Ndidi Ekubia creates visually stimulating yet functional silverware. Her method of making is founded on the idea of pushing sheet metal to its limits. The hand-finished, planished surfaces emphasise the fluid vitality of each form. The inherent quality of the work allows the viewer to become involved with a truly three-dimensional object, each side showing a completely different aspect.
Header image: Sparkle Vase, Ndidi Ekubia, 2012. Silver. © Ndidi Ekubia and the Victoria and Albert Museum
Metalworking Now is on at the V&A until 31 December 2024.
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