I love silver

It’s an old love, going back to my discovery of silversmithing back in 1979. I first had to learn on copper scrap and wire. (Thank you, Hunt Brothers, for jacking up the price of silver back then. You taught me frugality when I started using the good stuff.)

One of my earliest jewelry obsessions was anything related to ancient Egypt. It’s stayed with me over the years. Here is a silver, carnelian, and feldspar broad-collar I made to wear to a museum exhibit a while back. With the exception of some cast silver apple blossoms, I handcrafted the links, drops, and clasp from soldered silver wire. Stringing it was an adventure. My only regret is that I have to wear it over a darker dress or shirt – my skin isn’t richly-toned enough to set it off properly.

I don’t make as many silver pieces as I used to, largely because the price of precious metals has once again skyrocketed. But I still have fun with soldered wire designs.

Here is a open-work soldered wire beaded chain, interwoven with 2mm gemstone beads and larger accent beads. It started life as a stark white silver piece with a high polish. I wore it for several years. Then I broke one link. In the process of repairing the necklace, I decided to rebuild it a darker, more asymmetrical way. I replaced the broken link with a red tigereye bead. Then I ran a charcoal patina over the whole chain, and polished only a few areas. It’s now my favorite steampunky/Halloween/just-edgy-enough-to-wear-to-galleries piece.