About the Author

One of the most innovative and influential silversmiths of the latter 20th century, the late Heikki Seppä helped introduce the technique of reticulation to the United States while also developing and popularizing new methods for shaping sheet metal into three-dimensional shell structures. His own works are notable for their use of bold sculptural forms -- Seppä insisted that silver could be an expressive, rather than merely utilitarian, medium -- and for combining silver and gold with other metals to create striking contrasts and color blends. Born in Säkkijärvi, Finland, in 1927, Seppä studied at the Goldsmith School of Helsinki and the Central School of Industrial Art in Helsinki. He continued his professional training in 1948-49 with George Jensen Silversmiths in Copenhagen, Denmark, and two years later emigrated to British Columbia, Canada, where he taught jewelry and metalsmithing at the Civic Center in Prince Rupert. Seppä died in 2010.