The desire to own and wear, or give, jewellery for personal adornment is as old as civilisation itself. Jewellery-making offers a bottomless well of inspiration to create innovative accessories, precious keepsakes, or valued gifts expressing our love, care, and concern for each other. Sue Lutkenhouse explains two of the most common techniques.
Silversmithing
Silversmithing is the term used for the manipulation of precious metals to create expressions of artistic endeavour, from buttons to jewellery to sculpture. Precious metals can also be used to embellish everyday household items from handles for teacups to candelabras. The range of techniques is broad and flexible allowing artists to explore 3 – dimensional shapes, surface texture, colour, and movement to create objects of beauty and wonder.
Background image: Silver jewellery by Jennifer Payne
Enamelling
Enamelling is the art of melting coloured glass onto a metal surface. Enamelling can create a range of effects determined by the base metal surface (usually Copper or Silver), the range of colours and opacity of the ground glass, the layering of colours and the underlying image the artist is trying to reveal or create. Enamelling is used in jewellery making, to create two dimensional images on copper plate, or to embellish copper cups and bowls and three dimensional sculptures to great effect.
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Woodturning
Life Drawing
