About The Fortymile Gold Workshop

One goldsmith, one family mine, every piece made by hand in the Yukon.

The Ancient Art of Natural Gold

I am Leslie Chapman, I handcrafted jewellery from the natural 21K placer gold my family mines on the Fortymile River. My jewellery has been compared to the jewellery produced in ancient times by ancient goldsmiths; such as the Egyptians, Incas, and Mayans. Part of the similarity comes from the fact that these ancient goldsmiths used gold in its natural alloy as I do.

The gold I work with comes directly from my family’s mine on the Fortymile River. It is naturally 21K, with a rich colour and natural alloy that I leave intact rather than refining and re-alloying it. Because I know exactly where the gold comes from, its connection to the Yukon remains part of every piece I make.

Handcrafted Gold Jewellery, Made in Dawson City

Every piece is handcrafted. The gold is heated, hammered, drawn, filed, and worked into shape at the bench, and it stays under the hammer until it is what it is going to be. Nothing is cast in a mould or run off in a batch, and there is no team and no production line, so I make each piece myself from start to finish and set the stones myself as well.

Working the metal by hand is slower than casting and harder on the hands, and it is the reason a piece holds up. Hammering packs the metal tighter and closes up the small voids that casting leaves behind. A cast piece is gold poured into a shape and left to cool. A handcrafted piece has been worked into that shape, and the working is what makes it a piece which can become a family heirloom.

When a piece is finished, it is stamped with the Fortymile Gold mark. That mark is my word on the purity of the gold, the honesty of the materials, and the standard of the work. It goes on last and it stays on for as long as the piece lasts.

The Materials

Everything set into a piece comes from somewhere I can point to. The ivory and the nuggets come up out of the same gravel as the gold, on ground we already mine and already restore. The diamonds come from the Northwest Territories, about as close to home as a diamond gets, and they can be traced back to the mine they came out of. Coloured gems I bring in from further afield when a design calls for one.

Ivory

Mammoth ivory surfaces in the same gravel as the gold. The Klondike was never buried under the ice sheets, so this area was a refuge for many of the megafauna of the time. Their remains are still buried in the permafrost, tens of thousands of years on. Washing gravel is how they come back up. The ivory polishes to creams and browns no living material will give you, and every piece carries the grain of the tusk it was cut from.

Diamonds and Gem Stones

We are fortunate to have diamond mines in our sister northern Canadian territory, the North West Territories. I like to use these beautiful, high quality diamonds where possible, and I can also source lab grown diamonds if the client prefers. As well, I like to use other natural gems stones from around the world in my work. Rubies, emeralds and sapphires all look stunning set off by our rich yellow gold.

Nuggets

Most of what the sluice recovers is dust. A nugget is the rare exception, a piece of gold big enough to have come down the river whole, rounded and battered on the way. They are scarce, and like gemstones, the larger they get the rarer they are. The river leaves them dimpled and worn, and no two are alike. A nugget is the one gold I don’t melt down. It gets set in the shape the water left it, so the piece is built around the nugget.