After a motorcycle accident left him unable to walk, Lee Young set up a business from his garage making jewellery out of silver spoons. He talks to Ruth Addicott

If someone had told Lee Young ten years ago he would have a business making jewellery out of silver spoons, he would never have believed them. He was a landscape gardener by trade and already had a successful business, but after a motorcycle accident in 2008, he was forced to re-think his entire career.

Lee, from Newton Aycliffe, used to restore and ride vintage Vespas and Lambrettas and got knocked off his scooter by a brand new Ferrari, snapping both femurs in his legs and breaking his collarbone. He was in a wheelchair for a year, his wife Paula had to give up her job as an NVQ assessor to look after him and it was 18 months before he was back on his feet.

“The lads used to say, I can’t believe you got knocked off by a Ferrari, but to be honest, if it hadn’t been a Ferrari I might be dead,” he says. “If it had been a normal car or van I would have probably gone into the side, because it was so low I went over the top.”

“I couldn’t go back to work after the accident because I couldn’t do heavy lifting and I was looking for something else to do. Then one day Paula showed me a picture of a spoon ring one of her friends had bought and said ‘would you be able to make me one?’”

Lee had a go and was so impressed by the results he began scouring antique shops for silver spoons, picking up tips on the internet and making rings for friends and family, before launching his business venture Silver Splendore last year. Each piece of jewellery is handmade and crafted from solid silver such as teaspoons, forks, fobs and coins.

Spoon rings date back to the 17th Century when they were worn by servants who would steal a silver spoon from their master and have it turned into a wedding ring. If caught, they could face several years overseas in jail.

For Lee, the history behind it is part of the appeal. He found a nurse’s buckle from the 1800s and turned it into two silver rings and also makes necklaces and bangles. “I like to buy unusual things and turn them into something else,” he says. “Pickle forks make nice pendants and rings.”

Another piece he made was a wedding ring from a silver crab pick which sold for £50. “It was solid silver, it had the hallmarks on and looked like an unusual wedding band, it was really nice,” he says. “I’m trying to get hold of one again, but they are dead rare.” Some of the pieces are made using the whole spoon and feature the whole bowl with the handle wrapped around in a ‘twist’ effect.

Lee is hoping to set himself apart from other designers by specialising in genuine silver. He tries to make sure the hallmark is visible on every piece and provides a card with the spoon’s history, including the date, manufacturer and city it came from. “Birmingham, London and Sheffield are still going now so they are quite common, but when you get Newcastle or Chester or Edinburgh they get rarer,” he says.

“If a spoon is really old or from the 1800s there are four stamps on the hallmark, as soon as it turns to about 1900 it goes down to three stamps - the letter is for the date and the lion means it is British sterling silver. I try to stick with English silver, it’s probably the best silver in the world because the hallmarks tell you everything and people know what they’re getting.” Prices vary from £25 - £45 for a pendant and £45 to £55 for a ring. A piece made from a bigger dessert fork can be £65.

Lee’s other speciality at the moment is coin rings (he uses coins up to 1919), but he has to be careful not to overheat them or they can split or warp. It took six hours to make his first coin ring, but he can now do it in less than four. He also takes commissions including requests to turn silver Christening spoons into jewellery. “I always see something and think what can I make that into? There’s always something different to make,” he says.

Most of his pieces are sourced from antique shops, auctions and ebay and can be bought online as well as at festivals and vintage fairs.

Lee and Paula also own a VW camper and did around 30 festivals last year travelling to Kent, Wales and Scotland. Lee says the best was the VW Festival. “Women don’t want to walk around looking at car parts so when they saw the jewellery stand they were overjoyed,” he says. “I think some people see the jewellery as a love token, like a Welsh love spoon. Loads of people say ‘my granddad used to make them’ and it connects people to it straight away.”

For further info visit silversplendore.co.uk or facebook.com/pages/silver-splendore