Juhls Silver Gallery
in Finnmark

A truly magical place

Nestled among the trees just outside of Kautokeino's town centre and overlooking the Alta River, you'll find a very special and quirky place called Juhls Silver Gallery.

“This is my life's work and I need to finish it before my time runs out.”

Regine Juhls

Founder, Juhls Silver Gallery

Every inch of this shop and gallery has a story to tell. It has been built from the ground up over the last 60 years by Regine and her husband, Frank.

Juhls Silver Gallery is so much more than a shop. It is a gallery, a museum and a life story worthy of its own TV show. Walk through the stunning, themed rooms and marvel at extraordinary jewellery designs, art, unique architecture, and designer objects.

Photo: Fredrik Ahlsen/Visitnorway.com

German Regine and Danish Frank found their way to Kautokeino and each other in the 1950s. It wasn't easy to travel to Northern Norway at this point in time, when Kautokeino didn't even have roads.

“I was actually supposed to become an actress, but quickly realised that I was obsessed with everything that was Norwegian.”

Regine Juhls

Founder, Juhls Silver Gallery

Regine carried her belongings in a backpack and walked for miles through Southern Norway by foot, until she reached Bergen. That's where she wangled a job on board a Hurtigruten ship, in order to gain passage all the way up to Tromsø. Her perseverance didn't stop there, as she managed to travel to Alta on a fishing boat, before arriving at her final destination on one of the first snowmobiles in Norway.

From Vienna to Kautokeino

"I was studying at a theatre school in Vienna, until I found out that I wanted to take a different path in life," says Regine.

She had a strong affinity for culture and the old theatre classics, but she was also strongly drawn to nature. Regine asked herself:

"Was culture or nature more important to me, and could I find my place in between them somehow?"

That's when she got the idea of spending time with a nomadic Sami family, which would allow her to experience a real contrast from her life in Vienna. On her way to Kautokeino she spent some time in Tromsø, in order to study Sami culture so that she would be a bit prepared.

"I hoped to find a Sami family in Kautokeino that would take me on as a maid," says Regine.

Regine's determination paid off and she joined a nomadic Sami family that let her look after their children and chop wood.

It was during this time that she noticed a young man in the area. Frank Juhls was from Denmark and had built his own cabin by the river. He invited her for coffee a couple of times, before she eventually agreed to visit him.

"His modest cabin uncovered a world of beautiful things that left me speechless," recalls Regine.

She was pleasantly surprised when she saw an eclectic mix of Danish ceramics, handmade curtains, paintings, and hunting tools. They had no end of things to talk about. That's how she met the man who would become her husband.

Why silver jewellery?

Neither Regine nor Frank were silversmiths in any shape or form. However, their artistic abilities had been noticed by the Sami people, which led them to ask if Regine and Frank could fix their silver items.

The Sami people acquired silver through trade between the countries in the high north. There's a belief that silver, and other types of metal, protect people from evil and bring luck. Unfortunately their nomadic lifestyle wasn't compatible with silversmithing.

It was around this time that Frank's cabin tragically burned to the ground.

"We weren't sure if we should be sensible and move south, or if we should stay and do something in Kautokeino," says Regine.

They ended up staying and working out how to become silversmiths. In the beginning they repaired items the Sami already owned, before designing pieces in collaboration with them.

The couple also rebuilt their cabin, which is today the first and oldest room in Juhls Silver Gallery.

"We have since dedicated this room to the Sami," says Regine.

This room can teach you a lot about nomadic history, thanks to an impressive collection of items that the Sami came into possession of through trade. The objects on display have been passed down over several generations and acquired in Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Norway. Although the pieces come from different places, one can often see similarities.

Precious tundra

In the early 1960s, Regine started creating her own abstract jewellery designs inspired by Arctic nature, and these pieces are now considered modern classics.

"I find it touching that reindeer moss manages to stay green and survive under thick layers of snow," says Regine.

Her Tundra collection is iconic within the Nordic design world. The timeless pieces depict the nature found on the famous Finnmark Plateau. The jewellery portrays a longing towards the short and precious time when everything is in bloom, as winter lasts for many months in this part of the world.

Regine has always been an artist at heart. In recent years, this passion has meant that something other than silver has been keeping her occupied.

It started with a single fossil she found as a child, which she later glued to a wall in the shop in 1993.

Since then, her spectacular mosaic has grown full of stories that pay attention to the very smallest of details.

"I'm intrigued by history, philosophy, and the universe," says Regine.

Part of the mosaic follows human history in the Western world, through themes such as myths and matriarchy.

You'll also see a lot of space and planetary inspiration, and there are certain parts of the design that Regine doesn't want to talk about.

"The three main features on the wall are slates locally sourced in Alta, rusty iron that I find discarded in ditches, and glass that's melted in a specific way to create thick squares."

"Sometimes I come across something random that has to be a part of the wall too," says Regine.

Now in her mid 80s, Regine is still working on this art piece, more than 30 years after she first started. She dedicates her days to finishing her life's work, keeping her late husband's unfinished mosaic nearby for motivation.

"I am committed to completing it, even though it's incredibly time-consuming and at times boring, especially when I'm glueing tiny pieces of glass and stone to the wall, but it has to be done," says Regine with conviction.

Architecture inspired by snow

Juhls Silver Gallery started as a modest cabin in the late 1950s. A new room was added each decade until the 1990s.

Regine and her late husband Frank are the minds behind the interior design and decoration. In the beginning, they built nearly everything by themselves, which led to the establishment of their distinctive style of architecture.

"Each room took around a decade to build. It took a particularly long time in the early years when there weren't even proper roads in Kautokeino and there was little help available," says Regine.

Despite all that their creativity flourished, and their ideas were brought to life over years of manual labour and tenacity. They found a lot of inspiration through their love of the great outdoors.

"The curved roofs and ceilings were inspired by the way a snowdrift lies. It was a lovely thought given to us by nature," says Regine.

Much their art and architecture experiments with geometrical shapes like triangles, squares, and ovals.

The entire building is the couple's shared life's work and their colourful personalities emanate from every small detail.

Fascinated by nomads

The Sami people weren't the only ones that fascinated Regine and Frank.

"We had a genuine curiosity about nomadic lifestyles and wanted to see what they looked like on the other side of the world," says Regine.

After experiencing what it was like in harsh winter conditions, they wanted to see how similar things might be in the opposite climate in the desert. This resulted in two trips to Afghanistan in the 1970s.

On their second trip in 1978, the political situation in Afghanistan took an unexpected turn when the President at the time, Mohammad Daud Khan, was shot during a communist coup. This led to a period of unrest, where Soviet troops invaded the country and Afghan rebels known as the Mujahideen fought back.

Afghanistan was occupied by the Soviet Union for 10 years.

The connection they had made with the locals and the country drove them to help as much as they could. An Afghan room was created in the Juhls Silver Gallery in order to raise awareness about what was happening in the country.

"We sold Afghan rugs to make money for those in need and we also went back to the Afghan/Pakistan border to aid refugees in person," Regine recalls.

Once the Iron Curtain fell, they removed one of the walls in the room and built a pathway that led back into the shop, representing a homecoming for the refugees.

But much to Regine and Frank's dismay, the Taliban came into power.

The Afghan room now leads to a room featuring products from developing countries.

"We want to support people who create lovely things but don't receive the attention that they deserve," says Regine.

There are also some Norwegian products there to mark an end to the exotic travels, so that when you walk up the stairs it's like you're going back home.

So what are you waiting for?

Juhls Silver Gallery is open every day apart from public holidays. They even occasionally host events like classical music concerts.

It's completely free to enter this magnificent combination of a museum and a shop. If you're lucky, you'll see Regine working on her mosaic. Art isn't the only thing you'll find on the premises, as behind a large glass window there's a separate room just for chickens and sheep.

They've also chosen to showcase beautiful Norwegian and Scandinavian design products, from brands like Nordahl Konings, Blåst, and Rauma.

A family business

It's a true family business, as both of the Juhls's daughters are actively involved. Rauna Juhls Tveitnes runs the Juhls Silver Gallery shop at UNESCO-listed Bryggen in Bergen, while Sunniva Juhls is a silversmith and general manager of the original Juhls Silver Gallery in Kautokeino.

“There's so much soul within these walls and I think that's something people miss, as a lot of things nowadays are very uniform and similar.”

Sunniva Juhls

General manager, Juhls Silver Gallery

A key feature of Juhls Silver Gallery is that every single piece of jewellery is made in-house in Kautokeino. The personal aspect is very important to them, as there are few places that still do everything themselves from start to finish. A team of nine talented silversmiths create all the products, and you can actually see them in action through the workshop window.

Maybe you'll even choose to bring home one of these unique design pieces!

Photo: Fredrik Ahlsen/Visitnorway.com