Handmade Silver Art Jewelry by Diana Kirkpatrick
In the coming months I’ll be concentrating on a slightly new direction for my handmade silver art jewelry designs. My newest designs in sterling silver art jewelry combine shapes cut from sheets of silver metal with silver wire used in a variety of forms.
To make some of the new pieces, I select sheet silver in an appropriate thickness, trace my design onto the metal, and cut it out. Once the silver has been cut, I begin to sand and polish my handmade piece of silver art jewelry.
In one design I’ve combined textured pieces of sterling silver with a prong set cabochon. Each piece of silver has been carefully cut and shaped. I’m experimenting with rivets for joining some of my silver pieces as an alternative to soldering everything. As with everything else in these designs, the rivets are silver and are all handmade. One heart-shaped silver pendant has a prong-set cabochon in the center of the heart. The outer edge has been textured and has a patina applied.
Another of my new handmade silver art jewelry designs is a two part pendant set with larimar cabochons. First I select the silver I want to use and cut out the design with a saw. Then I file and sand to shape and smooth the design. Once I’ve done most of the polishing, I solder the bezels to hold the stones. For this particular pendant, I also drilled holes in each piece and connected everything with handmade silver jump rings. Some of my new pieces have a lot of texturing of the metal, but this particular pendant has a shiny finish like a mirror.
To increase strength and stability for my woven fine silver pendants and earrings, I’m creating soldered frames for my metal weaving. This construction approach will allow me to design more detailed art jewelry pieces that combine bezel set stones with woven silver elements. All these pieces are handmade from cutting out the various metal shapes through the assembly of all the pieces of the design.
An art jewelry bracelet design that I’m particularly proud of uses large square sterling silver wire which has been coiled into flat spiral elements. I’ve made each spiral a little different and linked them together with silver jump rings made from the same large square wire. I also made earrings to match the bracelet.Contact me directly for more details and an appointment to see my work.