Founded in 1976, Idea Books specializes in connecting publishers and cultural institutions with a global audience through architecture, art, photography, design, fashion, and film. Their offerings cover topics that are both thought-provoking and inspirational.

Tala Silver, published in conjunction with Nutida Svenskt Silver’s 60th anniversary, gives us a glimpse of the member smiths’ practices, and places contemporary artistic silver and goldsmithing in a wider social, cultural and political context. Nutida Svenskt Silver is a non-profit organisation that promotes the development of artistic silver and goldsmithing in Sweden.

The book contains four essays that deal with artistic silver and goldsmithing, as well as jewellery and corpus, from different perspectives – as vehicles for contemporary commentary and exploration, as craft from an art historical point of view, and, of course, as a livelihood. The rest of the book is devoted to a presentation of Nutida’s member smiths – highly competent artists with exceptional craftsmanship skills, evaluated and chosen by an experienced panel. On these pages, the smiths introduce themselves and their practices through short presentations, along with new pictures of selected works.

Edited by Anders Bergmark, words from Kerstin Wickman, Cilla Robach, Anders Ljungberg, Sofia Silfverstolpe, Dorota Lizke + 34 silversmith members of Nutida Svenskt Silver. Graphic design from Cecilia Lindgren Studio and photos by Sara Danielsson