Shops / Shop of the Week
Shop of the Week: Silver & Steel, East Street
Since opening in 2023, Silver & Steel has provided a space for makers to platform their work and “be together”, while sharing experiences, growing, learning and making.
In December 2025, robbers smashed a glass display near the shop’s main window and stole some precious pieces worth thousands of pounds.
Owner Bethany May said that in Europe it was quite common to have items on display near the window because it “shows the craft and it’s like connecting people with it again”.
“It was quite a good kind of ‘you can’t stop us’,” she said, describing the team’s mindset after the burglary. “We decided we’re gonna keep making jewellery and put a bench in the window so people can watch it happening, engage with how things are made – turning the negative into a positive.”
A workbench stands near the shopfront since the burglary as a sign of resilience
Silver & Steel has always focused on platforming local designers as residents, who also run classes and sell their own jewellery at the award-winning shop. They organise drop-in workshops and planned classes where customers can pay for materials depending on the weight of the pieces they create.
She said: “We also run six-week courses so people can learn skills and then they’ll have a really good foundation for carrying it on and understanding the craft.
“We’re running a gemmology workshop with a fully traceable gemstone, dealer and miner in March, and we will run things like laser welding”.
Silver & Steel runs private and group workshops in its studio, which is also located inside the shop
Silver & Steel is also known for its public exhibition Friends of the Gallery, where 14 novice artists who have never made jewellery are encouraged and supported to make their very first collection.
“One of them has now launched a jewellery career,” added Bethany.
The shop and projects like these are embedded within an ethos of sustainability, aimed at tackling the fast-fashion culture.
Speaking to Bristol24/7, Bethany said there was a lack of “transparency” in the jewellery industry around sustainability, and that she and her team were “trying to be part of the drive to change that”.
“When I first opened the shop, I sourced gemstones from private collections.
“So they were secondhand, they weren’t directly mined.
“And we work with 100 per cent recycled metals, which we also recycle in-house”
Silver & Steel’s jewellery-making workshops can be booked here: www.silverandsteelstudios.co.uk/workshops-1
Main photo: Loki Stokes
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