I have been designing, creating and selling my jewellery here on Gabriola Island, BC since 2000. It started as a project for my daughters. They were 8 and 6 years old when we decided to set up a table at our local Farmer's Market, selling beaded jewellery and other handcrafted items, mostly for kids. Of course they quickly lost interest and spent most of the market playing with friends or looking after their baby brother! I, however, was hooked! I made beaded jewellery using higher quality glass and stone beads, then I learned peyote stitch and began creating intricate bead amulet bags.
A few years later I was invited to teach beadwork at a local silversmithing school. I was fascinated by the silver and was gifted a piece of silver wire. I played with that for a while, creating spiral rings and other wire jewellery, bending and twisting it into various shapes, or wrapping stones. I taught myself whatever techniques I needed but was unable to progress without learning how to solder properly. As the saying goes: "when the student is ready a teacher will appear" and so she did! I learned the basics of soldering in a local 3 day class and then I was ready to expand the possibilities of my silver designs.
Countless hours and years later I am still as passionate about designing, creating and selling my silver jewellery as ever, learning and practicing new techniques as I go. I had considered opening an Etsy shop for several years but finally got it together in February of 2020, opening my shop just weeks before Covid-19 protocols changed the world!
While I still sell at the local Farmer's Market every year (21 years now!), have been part of the Gabriola Island Thanksgiving Studio Tour since 2004 and have been a founding director of the Pier Gallery Artists Collective for 10 years, it's the online sales that have driven my motivation to create more unique handcrafted silver jewellery recently.
Each piece of my jewellery is individually hand designed. The process of making each piece is time consuming and often challenging. I start with a sheets of silver (and often 14k gold or bronze) and handcut each shape with a jewellers saw (the 6/0 blades I use are so fine I can barely even see the teeth on them with my strong 5x magnifying glasses!) The shapes then need to be filed and smoothed before they are soldered together, a process that leaves the silver looking dull and ugly...so more finishing and polishing. I add details by stamping or engraving the silver...and then more polishing. To bring out the textures and patterns I soak the pieces in a sulphur solution that oxidizes the silver black...and then more polishing to remove the excess black coating. Most pieces take several hours or even days to complete but the time always passes quickly because this is my passion...and "time flies when you're having fun!"

Visit my website https://www.veritassilverdesigns.ca

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