Behind the Bench: How I Make Jewellery on the Isle of Wight

I’ve been lucky enough to grow up on the Isle of Wight, a small island off the south coast of England. For a long time I didn’t stop to appreciate it. It was just home, and I took it for granted. It was probably only when I started letting the artist in me out that I realised how special the Island is, and it’s still where I sit down at the bench every day to make my handmade silver jewellery.

Geometric silver jewellery made by hand

As an Isle of Wight silversmith, I’ve focused up to now on pieces built around clean lines and geometric shapes, made with traditional silversmithing techniques. For my geometric silver earrings I pierce the forms out of sheet silver with a saw, solder pieces together, then file and polish them until the edges are crisp and even.            

My stacking rings and spinner rings start as silver wire or sheet, which I bend, texture and shape into rings designed to be worn together or turned on the finger. Everything is made from 100% recycled sterling silver.

I love the precision of this kind of work, and these techniques will always be the foundation of what I make. There are some forms they can’t easily create, though, especially small, solid, three-dimensional shapes. So I’ve been expanding my skills and experimenting with something new: wax carving, with sand casting to follow.

Carving in wax

Each piece starts as a drawing. I transfer the design onto a piece of jewellery carving wax and cut it out by hand, filing and scraping it into shape until it looks right. Once the carving is finished I clean it up so the surface is smooth and the details are sharp, because anything left on the wax will show up in the silver.

Sand casting with Delft clay

The next step is to turn my wax carvings into silver, using a method of sand casting called Delft clay casting. Delft clay is a very fine, oil-bound sand that holds detail well, and it’s a lovely way to cast small pieces at the bench. Here’s how the process works.

It uses two metal rings that fit together, one on top of the other. I pack the first ring tightly with Delft clay and smooth the surface flat, then press the wax model halfway into it. After a light dusting of powder so the two halves don’t stick, I fit the second ring on top and pack that with clay too, so the model is completely enclosed.

When I carefully separate the two rings and lift the wax out, it leaves a perfect impression of the piece in the clay. I then carve a funnel-shaped channel leading from the edge of the ring down to the impression, which is where the silver will be poured in, along with a few fine vents so air can escape. The two halves go back together and are held firmly in place.

I melt recycled sterling silver in a crucible until it’s fully molten, then pour it in one steady movement down the channel so it fills the impression. Once it has cooled a little, I open the rings to reveal a rough silver casting, with a stub of extra metal still attached where the silver went in.

That’s only the start. I cut off the extra metal, then file, sand and polish each piece by hand until it’s ready to wear, which is where the traditional bench skills come back in.

What’s next

My first wax pieces are carved and ready, so the next thing for me to do is cast them in silver. I’m expecting a bit of trial and error along the way, but that’s all part of learning something new. Casting will open up shapes I couldn’t make before, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it works alongside my geometric pieces. I’ll share how the first castings go here and on Instagram at @kerrygallopjewellery, so follow along if you’d like to see what comes off the bench next. In the meantime, you can browse my stacking rings and spinner rings in the shop.