In 1996, Rachel Savané started selling her handcrafted silver jewelry at art fairs. By 2003 she had opened a storefront in downtown Lexington, and Savané Silver has occupied the corner of Broadway and Short Street ever since.
Her clientele has grown over the years and remains diverse in age, gender, ethnicity and financial means.
Savané earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in crafts and metals from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She’s operated an e-commerce website since 1999 and updates it daily as pieces sell and new ones are made.
“I dream of the website taking off as a major point of sale of my work to people who may never step into my shop,” she said.
Her only wholesale account is the Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea, though she is open to wholesaling with other customers, she said.
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Sarah Jane Sanders
Rachel Savané works on a new piece in her downtown studio.
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Sarah Jane Sanders
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Sarah Jane Sanders
In August, Savané celebrated her 25th business anniversary by returning to the Woodland Art Fair with a jewelry booth. “It felt great,” she said.
Savané has an inventory of 700 pieces in her downtown gallery at any given time. She uses about 100 different fine gemstones in her silver jewelry. Her signature stone is Kentucky agate, which was designated as the state rock of Kentucky in 2000. She is constantly inspired by agate, she said, “because it is found in such an array of colors and patterns.”
Savané typically designs rings, bracelets, necklaces and pendants in the moment instead of drawing them out beforehand. She then cuts, forms and solders the silver parts together, using traditional silver fabrication techniques to set a gemstone in the piece.
“My habit is to make something different than the last piece,” she said of her one-of-a-kind creations.
Sometimes customers bring in a sentimental gemstone or a piece of jewelry that belonged to a loved one to have Savané remake it. Gems aren’t the only thing Savané has been asked to include into her crafted silver jewelry. She has used broken pottery, seeds, elk ivory, typewriter keys, a guitar pick, a soda cap, broken glass, sea glass and coins.
Having a shop and her signature brand helps Savané explore numerous creative directions.
“I have always wished that more artist-entrepreneurs would follow my model and open their own shop showing only their own work, because it would add so much character to the town,” she said, adding that she’s willing to speak with anyone seeking advice on doing the same.
In 2014, after working 18 years without any significant break, she stayed home for almost three months nursing her husband, Mamadou “Sav” Savané, after he had a cooking accident at his restaurant (now called Sav’s Restaurant and Gourmet Ice Cream, located on East Main Street).
When she returned to work, she had reservations. “Would I remember how to make jewelry?” she asked herself. “Would my techniques and skills be up to par? If the skills were good enough, would I have ideas for designs?”
Her skills were still very much intact, and a new style emerged.
Sarah Jane Sanders
Instead of sculpting sleek and shiny pieces, she began forming heavily textured silver into a ring or bracelet without polishing it, “leaving the metal with oxidation and heavy gray tarnish in place,” she said. It “elevates the rough side of silver to appreciated beauty.
“Similarly, my husband and I appreciate the scars on his body after being burned, because they are on a living, healed body.”
During the pandemic, she created pins to be used on masks, “using a green stone, as our governor asks us to turn on a green light to show compassion for families suffering loss,” she said.
Savané also credits financial assistance from a Small Business Association loan and the Paycheck Protection Program, as well as grants from Downtown Lexington Partnership and Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, with helping her business survive the pandemic.
“These altogether meant that I was at square one and not in the hole,” she said.
Last fall, Savané created a membership opportunity “for this community of folks who like what I do,” she said.
In honor of her 25th year in business — the silver anniversary — she entered those who signed up for membership into a drawing for 25 gift certificates she awarded for $100 each, plus “one big, fat $1,000 shopping spree at my shop,” she said.
“When people ask why I am giving away so much for my anniversary — that people should be giving to me — I say, ‘They have given. That’s why I am still here after 25 years.’ I am full of gratitude for this life and this career and all the people who have supported my art by purchasing a piece or more. I am truly thankful and so I want to show it.”