The Workshop
One Workshop, No Second Address
Design and making happen in the same place. There is no partner factory and no second address — nothing gets sent out half-finished and comes back with someone else's polish on it. One workshop in South Africa, one bench, the same hands from the first sketch to the final polish.
Silnova
Most of what we make in silver, we make in Silnova® — a 925 alloy from Legor, in Italy. It carries palladium where sterling carries copper, which is why it does not firestain on the bench and does not need a rhodium coat to stay pale. It resists tarnish roughly twenty times better than untreated silver, which puts it nearer 9ct white gold than to sterling.
It is also made entirely from recycled precious metal. That is the part that settled it for us. A piece that holds its colour without plating is a piece you can wear into the sea and not think about afterwards.
Silnova® is a registered trademark of Legor Group S.p.A. We buy it. We did not make it and we do not speak for them.
Made in South Africa
Every Elsa Gray piece is manufactured in South Africa. Not designed here and finished somewhere cheaper — designed and made in the same workshop, by the same people, in South Africa.
That bench takes work for other houses too — components made here and sent on under someone else's name. It is unsigned work, which makes it a fair test of whether the standard holds when there is no credit in it.
The Metal
Silnova 925 for most of the silver, made from recycled precious metal. Gold where a piece calls for it. Ask us which is which on any given piece and we will tell you.
The Stones
Diamonds and coloured stones, ethically sourced. Tanzanite, tourmaline and aquamarine are the ones we reach for most, and more often than not they are southern African in origin.
The Hands
A small bench in South Africa. Photographs and names are coming — we would rather introduce people properly than put stock images of somebody else's workshop on this page.