Modern Heirloom® Fine Jewelry

As the holidays pass us by, I find myself looking forward to the new year and all it has to bring. 2012 has been an inspired year of creativity and personal artistic growth. The jewelry making world is such a fascinating community. In the past, we all existed in our various jewelry crafting bubbles too busy to venture out to connect with fellow jewelers. This often would leave me feeling disconnected from the jewelry community in which I work and slightly isolated by my craft. My favorite change over the course of this year has been the dynamic social networking has brought to the jewelry making table. It has been an amazing evolution to now connect daily with like creative minds and to show our creations to our collectors as well. The sharing of stories and techiniques bond us as we create our treasures . I have now managed to meet many of the greatest talents in each specialty within the jewelry and metalsmithing field from all over the world.It'sexciting to be a pa

A nother year ends and a new one begins . I t's time to reflect on the accomplishments of 2010 and look to the goals of 2011. I first began blogging with the goal to inspire and teach through which I would inevitably learn. The two go hand in hand after all and it was an honorable goal. Then the day to day demands of our custom jewelry shop take control of our time. This blog sits collecting dust as do many of the pieces we begin in the moments between deadlines and de sign challenges presented us throughout the year. So to begin this year, I am wiping off the dust and collecting the pieces. I am transforming this blog into a bird's eye view into the goldsmithing shop at our Gallery.... Si lver Bonsai Gallery . Rather than try to fit this blog into the spare moments of our daily shop demands, I will be highlighting them for you  project by project.  In turn I still plan to achieve my goal... to inspire an

pictured below:Illustration by Kathryn Holton Stewart www.silverbonsai.com I first discovered the beauty of hand engraving 5 years ago when I came across a class at Blaine Lewis ' New Approach School for Jeweler's . New Approach was introduced to me when Ben, my husband, studied Advanced Stone Setting under Blaine's instruction . The techniques offered and the p hilosophy of the school was so impressive we were hooked. When I spied a course on Hand Engraving I was completely intrigued and had to check it out. Drawing has been a part of my art since I was 8 . To bring illustration to my metalwork was an exciting concept. I signed up immediately and was fortunate to study under Jason Marchiafava. Jason is a third generation Artist and Craftsman by trade. He began his training metalsmithing and stone setting at a very young age under the supervision of Jeweler Tina May Shiele, the head jeweler of his father and grandfathers shop. By the time Jason graduated High School his s