MY PROCESS

My process of designing and fabricating sterling silver jewelry begins with drawing out my idea onto paper. My ideas may come from a semi-precious stone cabochon I like or something in nature, like a leaf. Everything begins with Ideas! 

The materials to build my "Ideas" begin with raw sterling silver sheet and sterling silver wire that I have purchased. I also use scrap sterling silver that I reuse. I sometimes melt the sterling silver and roll it out into an organic looking sheet to reuse. 

I enjoy using a variety of materials to accompany my sterling silver designs. These are just a few items I like using: sea glass, beach stones, sea pottery, ethically sourced bone, and semi-precious stones. I choose high quality stone cabochons. Most of my Turquoise comes from the miner mining the material. I try to list the type of Turquoise and their mine on a tag with the finished project along with any other relevant information.

Soldering: I have 3 different torches that I can use. The one I use almost all of the time is the Smith Little Torch with a combination of propane and oxygen. It is a very hot torch but also has a very fine tip. The silversmithing techniques that I use to fabricate my silver are using solder and fusing. Often I combine the 2 on a piece that I am fabricating.

Sawing: I believe that using a jeweler’s saw is a very important skill to acquire to use with Metalsmithing. I use this technique all the time! Using this skill makes it possible to saw the sterling silver sheet and wire no matter the thickness of the material.  

Repousse': To create the leaf jewelry, I use specialized hand tools that I have to hammer. I am not proficient with this technique yet but I keep using it anyway. It is difficult to hold the piece and use the tool while hammering with a moderately heavy hammer! This has to be done several times along with heating the piece over and over so the that the silver is soft enough to create the dimension that you desire.

Finishing: The process of finishing takes the longest for me. This is where I am getting my pieces ready for completion. I use a variety of tools: files, a motorized hand-piece that uses a variety of wheels, applied patina, tumbling, and hand polishing.