Even though I have been making jewelry for years, it is sometimes a surprise to see the end result. I am not one for drawing a design before fabricating jewelry. I like to assemble the pieces and squint my eyes to see what it will become.

First I imagine a type of design like flowers or hollow forms or celestial. That generally leads me to shapes that are complimentary to the design. I cut out some shapes and start layering them, twisting them, overlapping them and spinning them in all directions until I get just the right look. Sometimes shapes need to be reshaped, replaced or adjusted. A little snip here and bit of hammering there and pretty soon you know when you see the right combination.

So above is a picture of the in progress “before” view with flat pieces of silver, some flowers pedals taking shape, some layering in action, bezel for the stone and tiny balls for the flower centers. Once the pieces are sanded, layers soldered together, stones set in place and the metal is cleaned up, then comes the antiquing process. It is a bit of a metamorphosis takes place changing the shiny metal to antiqued look on the rustic hammered silver. Then I buff highlights into the design and stand back to admire the finished piece.

Take a break, job well done!