It’s been a minute since I went on an adventure with a whisky brand and lucky me, Balvenie had exactly the kind of trip I’d sign up for in mind. Balvenie gathered up a handful of bartenders and decided to take them on a field trip to the Baltimore Jewelry Center to create real .925 silver bar spoons… from scratch!
Balvenie swears by their five rare crafts and loves to embody the image of a brand that creates things from scratch, the old fashioned way. So they’ve got home grown barley and a traditional malting floor that make up a small percentage of their bottlings each year. Tack those two crafts in with their copper stills and on site barrel coopers to bump the number of crafts up to four. And the fifth of their rare crafts is their malt master whose title is currently rocked by the venerable David C. Stewart, MBE. So if you’re wondering why they’re even creating a trip like this, look no further than their core values.
We arrived at Baltimore Jewelry Center and got ready to do work! Our teacher walked us through the entire process from start to finish for creating the spoon and man-oh-man was there so much to learn!
The first part of the process was to cut out the bowl of the spoon which actually starts as a completely flat piece of silver. The basic shape of the bowl needs to be cut out and the edges need to be filed smooth.
Next up is straightening the handle and flattening the ends.
A quick lesson in playing with fire brought everyone on board with softening the silver and adding barspoon twists!
Annnnd cleaning up the silver a bit!
Now you’ve got your pieces ready to go!
With a little help, everything gets soldered up!
And voila! Here’s my ugly child!
Everyone made one that was unique and interesting!
So thank you to Balvenie and the Baltimore Jewelry Center!!! What a fun time!!
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