Using pattern welding to create the wavy patterns that appear in her billets of Damascus steel, Victoria Moore achieves a bold graphic statement by adding simple lines of gold and diamonds to the steel that highlight the movement of the line.

The images practically jump off the page – I imagine in person the jewelry appears to jump right off the body and into your line of vision.

“Pattern welding is a mechanical process wherein strips of metal are laid up together, heated, forged together, folded, then reheated, forged, folded, and so on, again and again. Patterns appear in the metal and vary according to what the smith does to the layered metal. Patterning techniques include carving, drilling, twisting and then flattening of the layered bar.”

Victoria Moore’s website

Nisa Smiley lives and works on the coast of Maine, immersing herself in nature and incorporating her experiences into the jewelry she has been making for more than a decade.

Physalis (Chinese Lantern Plant)
fine silver (PMC), custom hand-blown hollow glass interior beads

Spiral Seashell Ring

I’m partial to the Seashell Spiral Rings she creates with fragments of shells – you know the type of shell fragment I’m talking about – pieces of the interior spiral part of a shell that you find while walking on the beach, soaking in the scent, the sound, the sheer bliss of being oceanside. She sets them into hand crafted silver rings that are truly wonderful to look at – and remember time spent near the ocean. I don’t wear jewelry much, but I would wear that ring. Speaks to me.

Antique Shell Button Earrings

Bronze Lantern Bells

Skeleton Leaf Lentil Earrings, silver

Often I am moved to create jewelry that “tastes” of my experiences in Nature, be it the discovery of a blush-pink snail shell on the gray beach, the nubby green texture of a sun-bleached urchin shell, or the intricate pattern of feathers adorning a heron’s wing.

Nisa Smiley’s website