{"id":3087,"date":"2019-12-19T12:25:33","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T12:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nordnorge.com\/en\/?post_type=aktiviteter&p=3087"},"modified":"2025-09-01T11:05:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T11:05:03","slug":"juhls-silver-gallery-an-oasis-on-the-plain","status":"publish","type":"aktiviteter","link":"https:\/\/nordnorge.com\/en\/aktiviteter\/juhls-silver-gallery-an-oasis-on-the-plain\/","title":{"rendered":"Juhls’ Silver Gallery \u2014 an oasis on the plain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t An unobtrusive building with sweeping lines is a jewel box of traditional Sami silver and modern silver design. This is the life’s work of Frank and Regine Juhls.\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n

Founded by adventurers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the 1950s, Kautokeino was an isolated community with no roads, where the Sami people still lived their traditional way of life. A young Danish adventurer, Frank Juhls, was working here as a handyman, while a young German girl, Regine, had taken a job as a maid with a reindeer herding family. The adventurers found each other and became part of this unique community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sami silver<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Frank Juhls began to take on work repairing Sami silver jewellery, none of which had been made by the Sami; it had found its way north through trade. Sun wheels from Siberia, silver spoons and Catholic crosses, filigree brooches from Bergen \u2014 an assortment of items from different traditions, now united in eclectic beauty on traditional costumes, bringing new meaning to the items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silver with a new meaning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since nomads are always on the move, they do not have silversmiths. However, nomads find silver a good way of saving wealth and capital. It is easy to carry, and you can use it to display your wealth. Since nomads don’t build fine, richly decorated houses, it is silver that they use to demonstrate their prosperity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boom time for Sami Silver<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite being major consumers of silver jewellery, the Sami made none of it themselves. Now that they had a silversmith in the area, they could have jewellery made to order \u2014 things like an extra row of pearls around a brooch, or bigger, more visible hooks on a man’s costume. Since the 1950s, developments in Sami silver have been exciting. Women’s brooches have become bigger and more colourful, and the hooks and buttons on men’s costumes have become more ornate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The modern silversmith’s craft<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Regine Juhls also learnt the silversmith’s craft, although for her, silver was a means of artistic expression and her Tundra series is regarded as a modern classic. Her jewellery features light, fragile, organic and imaginative lines, inspired by the vegetation and light of the tundra. Her daughter Sunniva Juhls, who now runs the gallery, also has her own modern, expressive collection. Round earrings, deceptively simple brooches and rings in strong, simple shapes take their inspiration from the landscape of the Finnmark plain.<\/p>\n\n\n\t

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