Shaping Silver

By the time Egle Silko chose to devote her creativity to sterling silver, she had already explored a wide range of crafts – from textile design and glassblowing to ceramics – and knew this medium offered something special. “Metal as a material is really fascinating. It goes from liquid to soft to hard, allowing you to shape it in so many different ways,” she says. There's an eternal quality to it, too: “You can take a piece and melt it down and make something else… metal can have many lives.”

The forms and surfaces of Egle’s pieces directly express this sense of fluidity, featuring experimental textures that emerge through the making process. Some techniques she developed herself, drawing on her background in textiles, while others have appealed since the beginning of her jewellery-making journey. “Reticulation always feels experimental in the sense that you can never fully control it,” she says. Egle heats the metal until it begins to bubble, stopping only when she’s satisfied with the arrangement of grooves and ripples, then pinching it gently as it cools to achieve a particular finish.

At times, Egle’s playful approach also leads her into even more unpredictable territory. One of her favourite ways to manipulate metal is by intentionally creating what might, technically, be considered a “flaw.” “When you put the metal through the rolling mill, you reduce its thickness millimetre by millimetre,” she explains. “Usually, you try to avoid rolling it so many times that it cracks – but I see those cracks as rewarding aesthetic details.” Rather than signalling a mistake, these organic fissures become the focal point of many of Egle’s designs. “In a way, I play against the rules. All of my jewellery has marks that show the metal resisting me.”

While this attitude calls for a certain amount of trial and error, Egle is clear that she enjoys the process. “If I’m in creative mode and I don’t have a commission due, I work on several pieces at once and experiment with different forms and finishes,” she says. “Often things happen that I don’t expect, but I like that aspect of the way I work.”

One of Egle’s contributions to the TOAST New Makers collection is a pair of nugget-like earrings – each individual stud is shaped organically from molten silver and matched based on an intuitive feeling. She makes many at once so that they carry the same energy and flow, and tries to couple similar forms. “Everyone sees different pairs when they’re all laid out, so I’m guided by a kind of instinct.”

This reflects Egle’s intrinsic understanding of her material, fostered through a continuous dialogue. For the most part, she draws creative inspiration from the qualities and responses of silver, rather than from any specific art movement or visual reference point. “The majority of my ideas come from working with the metal itself, and really taking time to explore it. It's more like a collaboration.”

Originally from Lithuania, Egle is now based in Tallinn, Estonia. She works in a shared studio in the city centre, occupying a beautiful old building belonging to the Estonian Art Association. “It’s really unique – it’s a house full of artists.” Her creative community, which comprises four goldsmiths and two blacksmiths, is bound by a culture of skill-sharing and tool-swapping. “We all have our different practices, but we participate in exhibitions and markets together.”

Egle has long followed the TOAST New Makers programme and felt a particular affinity with 2025 New Maker Lindey Tydeman, who also studied textile design before transitioning into jewellery. Recognising a shared sensibility in both process and values, Egle felt encouraged to apply herself. “It’s not easy to find a brand with the right aesthetic and ethos,” she says. “I think it’s really special that TOAST brings together small makers from all over the world.”

Through the programme, she hopes to gain the confidence to share her pieces more widely, each one carrying traces of experimentation, intuition and the negotiation between maker and material that defines her practice.

Shop our New Makers 2026 collection.

Words by Bébhinn Campbell.

Photography by Iris Kivisalu.