Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 17/98) - Through his craft, goldsmith Jim Bowden has been a golden ambassador of Yellowknife for a decade.

He takes local gold nuggets weighing around a tenth of a gram and fashions them into pendants, rings and various other golden works.

"Goldsmithing is major part of my life," says Bowden, who came North from Cape Breton Island 10 years ago.

At 64, Bowden describes himself as "self-taught" when it comes to working with the commodity on which Yellowknife was built.

His repertoire includes a host of Northern symbols, but by far the most popular is the gold yellow knife.

"This has been the best 10 years of my life," he says, knowing he may soon retire his gravers -- the tiny chisels of the trade. "I've taught seven people the goldsmith trade, three in Yellowknife and four in Nova Scotia."

As well as being a goldsmith, he is also a diamond-setter, watchmaker and a hand-engraver.

Engraving was his first passion. It's a career that kind of chose him 40 years ago. "It was a Thursday and I was going to take a barber's course (in Halifax) starting the following Monday," he recalls.

But someone, who knew he had a talent for etching patterns on glass, suggested he take the engraving course instead.

His skill would ultimately lead to engraving a set of sterling silver trays for Queen Elizabeth. He has also reproduced a huge painting, depicting the growth of Port Hawkesbury. N.S., on two cufflinks, which were presented to former prime minister John Turner.

"I've even engraved the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin," he says. But that work, which Bowden says he did to challenge himself, has been lost. He believes someone inadvertently pounded into a trophy plate.

Bowden also recalls how his engraving career gave him a great view of sailboats participating in the yacht race from Marblehead, Mass., to Nova Scotia.

From a lookout tower, he would watch to see how the ships would finish so the engraved trophies would be ready when the ships docked. But the work he is most proud of, a 14-karat gold medal he made for his wife, Lorraine, when she graduated from Nova Scotia teacher's college.