Tamar, the family run Montreal wholesaler founded in 2006, exhibits at Time and Shine Edmonton on 16 and 17 August 2026. The house carries sterling silver, stainless steel and tungsten on a single account, and is offering ten per cent off silver and steel on orders written at the booth.
In fact, one number sits behind almost every buying decision Canadian jewellers are making this month. On Friday 7 August, silver futures traded at sixty five dollars an ounce. That is sixty one per cent up on the year, and a little over half the all time high of $121 the metal reached on 29 January.
Then, nine days later, a father and son from Montreal open a booth in Edmonton with a direct answer to it. Yet their answer is not a better silver line. Instead, it is three metals on one invoice.
Why does the metal mix matter more in 2026?
Because the market moved once, hard, and the rest of the year follows from it.
Silver’s annual average rose forty two per cent in 2025. Meanwhile, global silver jewellery fabrication fell eight per cent over the same period. North America was down seven per cent and Europe down ten, as higher prices pressed on discretionary spending. The Silver Institute’s April 2026 World Silver Survey forecasts double digit losses in jewellery and silverware this year. It also projects a supply deficit of 46.3 million ounces.
Then came the clearest signal of all. In February, Pandora said it would begin selling platinum plated jewellery, piloting across thirty Northern European stores before a wider rollout later this year. Chief executive Berta de Pablos-Barbier framed the move as navigating the new realities of raw material costs.
In short, read that as a retailer rather than as an investor. A company that buys by the tonne, with hedging desks and scale pricing no independent will ever see, has chosen to engineer part of its way out of the metal. By contrast, everyone else faces the same weather without the instruments.
So the practical question stops being which silver line to buy. It becomes which metals a store can still price with confidence, and how many suppliers it takes to cover them.
| Metal | Role in the case | Price exposure in 2026 | What the data shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sterling silver | Gift and self purchase | High. Spot up sixty one per cent year on year | Global fabrication down eight per cent in 2025, double digit losses forecast for 2026 |
| Stainless steel | Men’s chain wall and fashion | Low. Industrial pricing, largely stable | Absorbs demand as precious metals reprice |
| Tungsten | Bridal alternative | Low | Fastest growing wedding band material at 7.6 per cent compound annual growth to 2033 |
Where the Canadian numbers stop
No Canadian body publishes silver’s share of jewellery unit volume, average silver ticket, or store level turns. So the nearest usable figures are American. The Silver Institute’s retailer survey, fielded in early 2025, put silver at thirty one per cent of jewellery unit volume in 2024. That is up from twenty eight per cent in 2022. In addition, seventy one per cent of retailers added silver inventory by an average of fifteen per cent. Finally, eighty three per cent called the category essential to their business.
Similarly, Canadian jewellers describe the same pattern at every show in this country. Nobody here measures it, and that gap is worth naming rather than filling with a borrowed number.
Who runs Tamar, and what does the Montreal house sell?
Mashiah Papismado started the business in 2006. Then his son Simon joined in 2008. Eighteen years on, it is still the two of them at the centre of it. They work from an office at 620 Cathcart in downtown Montreal, with a showroom the family describes in writing as running on a no pressure policy.
Of course, that phrase is easy to skip. It also describes the whole competitive position of a house this size, and Tamar is unusually candid about it. In fact, the website states plainly that the company is smaller than its competitors, and that the trade off is being hands on and responsive.
Anyone who has bought from a second generation family wholesaler knows what is being promised. The person who picks up the phone can approve the exception, adjust the order, or take the return. In addition, free freight starts at $500. The catalogue runs to 273 products behind a trade login. That signals a house which is not selling direct alongside the stores it supplies.
Tamar Time and Shine Edmonton: what is on the stand?
Three material groups, each doing a different job in a Canadian showcase.
Sterling silver covers gift and self purchase. That means halo sets with ruby, blue opal and emerald coloured stones, plus Tree of Life pendants and matching sets. It also runs to twisted eternity bands, four ring stackable groups, channel set and pavé huggies, and triple infinity bracelets in two and three tone finishes.
Stainless steel covers the men’s wall and the chain business. Curb, figaro, franco, singapore, oval box, paperclip and coffee bean links run from 1.2mm to 15mm. Moreover, finishes include steel, gold colour, black and two tone. Banded rings set with black stones sit alongside them.
Tungsten covers bridal at a number a young couple will agree to. Polished bands with matte centres, carbon fibre inlays, hammered black finishes with gold lines, ceramic and tungsten combinations, and meteorite inlay.
That third group is doing something the trade press has been slow to write about, because it is unglamorous. Non precious wedding bands are forecast to grow at 4.6 per cent compound annually to 2033, with tungsten the fastest material in that market. Precious metals still hold fifty three per cent of it, so this is about direction rather than share.
In other words, it plays out at the counter. A bridal desk that can only answer a gold question with a gold price loses the customer who flinched. By contrast, a desk that can put a hammered black band with a meteorite inlay in front of that same customer keeps the sale in the building.
The book, in the metal
A spread from the current Tamar catalogue across all three material groups. Product photography courtesy of Tamar.
Sterling silver
Stainless steel
Tungsten
What does the Edmonton show special actually save?
The offer is ten per cent off silver and steel jewellery on orders written during the show. However, silver chains are carved out. Steel and tungsten are not.
The carve out is the informative part. Chain is weight driven and priced close to spot. So the spread on it is thin in a good year, and almost nothing in this one. Therefore, a supplier who excludes it is signalling that they know their own margins. They would rather keep an offer honest than publish a number they will claw back elsewhere.
Run the arithmetic on a realistic order. Take a store writing $15,000 at the booth. Split that $9,000 across silver pieces, steel and tungsten, and $6,000 in silver chain by weight. So the discount lands on the $9,000 and returns $900. Against a silver wall that has repriced by roughly sixty per cent in twelve months, $900 is useful rather than decisive.
Which is why the discount is the smaller half of the conversation. The percentage tells you very little; the condition attached to it tells you what the supplier is paying for.
What buyers should settle at the booth
Five things worth arriving with, rather than working out on the spot.
- The reorder window at current spot. A house that reprices weekly and one that holds a quarter are different suppliers, and the difference only shows up on the second order.
- Which finishes turn fastest in the West. Blackened and gold coloured steel do not move at the same rate in every province. Take their read, then weigh it against your own floor.
- Tungsten size range and exchange policy. Bridal without a clean size exchange becomes a returns problem by February.
- Whether the $500 freight threshold covers reorders into Alberta. Montreal to the Prairies is worth confirming face to face.
- The distributor programme. Tamar runs one. For a multi store group or a rep carrying lines, that conversation outvalues the show discount by a wide margin.
When and where is Time and Shine Edmonton 2026?
Time and Shine runs Sunday 16 and Monday 17 August 2026 at the Edmonton Expo Centre, 7515 118 Avenue NW. Registration is free for verified members of the trade, with no membership or affiliation requirement. Also, parking is free. Roughly eighty companies are moving inventory into the building. The full list sits in the Time & Shine 2026 official exhibitor directory.
There is a reason the Tamar catalogue is gated, and it is not only pricing. Two things decide whether a piece sells at retail: the weight in the hand, and the quality of the setting. Yet neither survives a thumbnail. Of course, that argument covers every company in the building. This year it simply carries more weight, because the assortment decisions made on that floor will hold until Christmas.
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Frequently asked questions
Who is Tamar and where is the company based?
Tamar is a family run wholesale jewellery house founded in Montreal in 2006 by Mashiah Papismado, with his son Simon joining in 2008. It supplies 925 sterling silver, stainless steel and tungsten to Canadian retailers from an office and showroom at 620 Cathcart in downtown Montreal.
What is Tamar’s show special at Time and Shine Edmonton 2026?
Ten per cent off silver and steel jewellery on orders written on the show floor. Silver chains are excluded. Stainless steel and tungsten are included.
When and where is Time and Shine Edmonton 2026?
Sunday 16 and Monday 17 August 2026 at the Edmonton Expo Centre, 7515 118 Avenue NW, Edmonton. Registration is free for verified members of the trade, with no membership or affiliation requirement, and parking is free.
Why does the metal mix matter more to jewellers in 2026?
Silver’s annual average rose forty two per cent in 2025. The metal then reached an all time high above $121 an ounce on 29 January 2026, before settling near $65 in August. Global silver jewellery fabrication fell eight per cent in 2025, with double digit losses forecast for 2026. Pandora has begun moving assortment to platinum plating in response. A supplier carrying silver, steel and tungsten on one account lets a retailer move a customer between metals without opening a second relationship.
Is there Canadian data on silver’s share of jewellery sales?
No. No Canadian body publishes silver’s share of jewellery unit volume or store level silver turns. The nearest available figures come from the Silver Institute’s American retailer survey, which put silver at thirty one per cent of unit volume in 2024.
Sources: Tamar; The Silver Institute, World Silver Survey 2026; The Silver Institute retailer survey; Pandora; Grand View Research. Silver price as at 7 August 2026.
