Decorative hand engraving
Jewellery and silverware covers a very wide range of specialist skills, however it merits some elaboration in its own right. There are many crafts people who focus solely on the production of one-off items of jewellery and silverware of their own design, sometimes for commission and sometimes for exhibitions and galleries.
As well as the commemorative aspect of engraving on jewellery and silverware, the graver can be applied to texture the surface with pattern, bringing light and vitality to a piece. An elaborately engraved bangle or necklace will move with the wearer, picking up reflections from the light sources around it. With larger objet d’art such as a bowl, box or vase, the engraved decoration is designed to enhance the item or portray certain themes that are fundamental to the object. Texture and pattern work can be applied over a surface area where small bright cuts with the graver can build into remarkable areas of sparkling points of light. Finer detailing can also be added to relief patterns like repoussé or chasing by the use of a graver.
What these pieces all have in common is that the items themselves, and the embellishment including any engraving they may feature, are planned from the outset and are intrinsically linked and of equal importance.