In March, Mary McIntyre interviewed Kye-Yeon Son in London. Son was attending the premiere of her Innate Beauty series of vessels and brooches at Collect, the annual international fair for contemporary craft and design organized by the Crafts Council, the United Kingdom’s national organization for craft practice, learning and business. The year 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of this annual showcase of globally significant works in ceramic, glass, wood, metal and textile, and having Son’s work appear in this international venue was a significant moment in the career of one of Canada’s leading silversmiths.

**Kye-Yeon Son**, *Innate Beauty 2023-5*, 2023. Steel, gold and silver plate, 10 x 225 x 22 cm. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST.

Son and McIntyre have known each other since 2008, showing together in exhibitions of the Metal Collective, a group of Canadian metal artists founded by the late silversmith Lois Etherington Betteridge. McIntyre says: “I’ve long admired the way that Kye’s vessels and jewellery combine poetic interpretations of nature with technical innovation.”

**Kye-Yeon Son**, *Innatus Forma 2012-1*, 2012. Steel, heat colouring and powder coating, 11 x 11 x 35 cm. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST.

After receiving a BFA in applied art from Seoul National University, Son pursued an MFA in jewellery design and silversmithing at Indiana University. She began teaching at NSCAD University in 1995 (then known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design), and has led the jewellery and metalsmithing department since 1995 with Professor Emerita Pam Ritchie, who retired in 2019.

*Kye-Yeon Son in the studio.* COURTESY OF THE ARTIST.

Son’s work explores ideas of fragility, endurance, emotion and emptiness through the formal language of vessel forms and consummate metalsmithing technique. In 2011, her work was recognized with the Saidye Bronfman Award, Canada’s premiere award for excellence in fine craft, administered by the Canada Council. In 2019, Son was a finalist for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, an international award that recognizes craft artists who “demonstrate an exceptional ability to create objects of superior esthetic value.” Son’s work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States, the U.K., Germany, Japan and Korea.