A couple of years ago I won the commission from Sheffield Assay Office to make the first piece of jewellery to be hallmarked at the new Sheffield Milan Assay Office. It had to be made in sterling silver, so this is the only piece I have made that is not Argentium for quite a while.
When the call for applications went out, the destination of the piece was still secret, and when I found out my design had been chosen I still didn’t know where it was going. It was all very exciting. My design was inspired by the rose which is the Sheffield Assay Office mark, and I chose to use dog roses in a necklace in silver with gold stamens.
I began by chasing the roses from silver sheet, to make them three dimensional. I stuck the silver onto pitch, and worked into it using punches and a hammer.
The next stage was to remove the silver from the pitch, ready to saw out the individual roses with a piercing saw
After cutting out the individual roses I soldered 18 carat gold stamens in the middle of each flower
Five flowers for the front of the necklace, and two to go at the back to be part of the fastening, and have the hallmarks on.
Coils of jump rings ready to be sawn up and soldered into a hand made chain
The finished necklace in a box ready to be sent off to Italy
Annette's silver blog 