When Zell Brothers, the 97-year-old institution in the Portland, Oregon, jewelry market closes at the end of the year, it will not be the end of the expert workmanship that has been available there. In some ways, it will be only the beginning.
         That’s because Bart Mills, expert jeweler and independent contractor, will simply move from the Zell Bros. store at 723 S.W. Salmon Street, down the avenue and around the corner to his own shop at S.W. Third and Alder, in the Willamette Building.
         In every city there are brand names that define the city's retail core. In Portland, Zell Bros. has been one of them for nearly a century. When they close, you’ll still be able to buy the fine settings that have been available, since Mills, one of Zell’s mainstay artisans, will still be creating the quality artwork he has been doing for over 20 years.
         “It’s been very gratifying working at Zell Brothers,” Mills said. “I’m still making rings for people whose grandparents bought their engagement and wedding rings from Zell Bros.” Now he has the opportunity of serving jewelry patrons in his own shop, at lower cost, since now he can sell directly to the public.
Early Days
         Mills graduated from the Texas Institute of Jewelry Technology in 1990, a two-year comprehensive course, in 1990 at the age of 19, and has been improving his art ever since, in jewelry stores in Alabama, Idaho, and Portland.
         “I always had an interest in art while growing up,” Mills said. “I was drawn to jewelry because it seemed to me this was a way to be an artist without being a starvingartist.”
         It was in Boise that he met his wife and “followed” her to Portland, where they’ve lived and worked for ten years. They have an 18-month-old daughter, Chloe. Immediately he went to work as a Broadway jeweler in downtown Portland, and now he will be working in his own shop.
The Artistic Process
         Mills briefly explained the exacting process of making fine jewelry and why it is truly an art from concept to execution of the design. “After the initial sketches and models are made, one of the following processes is used to create an enduring piece of jewelry whose beauty will give continuous pleasure,” he said.
         Hand Wrought: the term for fashioning an item of jewelry entirely by hand, including melting the metal in a crucible, hammering and bending it to the desired shape, boring and sawing the necessary holes, using special tools to engrave texture on the metal, welding and soldering parts together, and burnishing and polishing the metal.
         Cast: For most fine jewelry pieces made in quantity, the lost wax, or centrifugal casting, method is employed. Here, the model is carefully sculptured in wax, then placed in a flask into which plaster is poured. The plaster investment is placed in a vacuum to remove bubbles, then allowed to harden. The wax is burned out (lost) in an oven, leaving behind a cavity which duplicates the original model in all its detail.
         When it has cooled, the chunk of plaster with the hollow shape of the original wax piece in it is placed in a centrifugal jewelry casting device. The centrifugal caster then spins around and molten gold or silver is forced into the hollow spot in the chunk of plaster by centrifugal force.
         After the metal inside of the plaster has been allowed to cool, the plaster is then chipped away. What is revealed is whatever was originally encased inside the plaster made of wax, only now it is made out of metal. “Even things such as bugs and leaves can be encased in plaster and then reproduced in metal this way as long as they can be burned out in a kiln,” Mills said.
         He emphasized that the lost wax method is centuries old, used by Egyptians in the Bronze Age, but that modern technology has streamlined the process. “For a long time, jewelers resisted such things a CAD-CAM, but these techniques have revolutionized the business. The combination of science and art makes for a kind of modern-day alchemy.”             With these computerized processes, as well as the optical technology equivalent to that used in a doctor’s office, he can achieve a purity of design and symmetry once attainably only through the most scrutinizing analysis.
         And he pointed out the rarity of a 40-year-old man with 20 years’ experience in the creation of fine jewelry. The field has long been thought of as “an old man’s game.”
         “I enjoy what I do because I can be part of the best times of people’s lives: celebrations, weddings, birthdays, and gifts,” Mills reflected. You can let him be a part of the best times of your life by visiting his shop in the Willamette Building at S.W. Third and Alder in downtown Portland.