Vickie Hallmark
Austin, TX. USA
Images and work details at:
I grew up hearing stories about my surname, Hallmark, which is a
quality mark on fine metals (and no, I’m not related to the Hallmark
cards people, whose name is only Hall). My ancestors were supposedly
silversmiths, which I always took to explain my attraction to
jewelry.
For years, I just collected jewelry handmade by others and went my
crazy scientist path. Eventually I burned out in the laboratory, and
sought the studio instead. There, I explored fiber and then glass,
but I still looked wistfully at metal. So I caved to the attraction,
took a lot of classes from master jewelers, bought a lot of tools
(continuing!) and started making the pieces I saw in my head. It
feels like I’ve come home to what I’m supposed to do.
My jewelry is inspired by nature, by the flora in my central Texas
garden and by the wildlife that visits the garden. I work
predominantly in silver, particularly Argentium, as well as fine
metal clays, and increasingly I add colorful gemstones as well. I
start by hand sculpting small components such as birds, flowers and
leaves in metal clay and kiln firing them to pure metal. Then I
construct a base structure for the jewelry from Argentium silver,
fusing as much as possible rather than soldering. Finally, each
original vignette is painstakingly arranged and fused into place.
I’m very detail oriented, so I tend to add layers of texture and
surprises for the wearer.
…
Passion is contagious! Show us your passion, Show us your work!
Submit your work to feature in the Orchid Online Jewelry Exhibition
today: