Sandra McEwen

I create Champlevé & Cloisonné enamel jewelry. After graduating with a BFA in illustration from RISD, I apprenticed in glass in Italy.  For many years I worked primarily in leaded glass, an experience that informs my work as a jeweler.  Using powdered glass enamels to adorn precious metal is a technique that has been in use by craftsmen for millennia. Cloisonné is a French word meaning “to be divided into compartments”, and describes the technique of separating each individual color of enamel with very thin silver wires.

After preparing the powdered enamels, I use a fine brush to lay enamel grains carefully into place between the silver wires.  Each layer of enamel is fired in the kiln, and the layers are slowly built up until they are flush with the top of the silver.  Each piece usually has been fired 15-20 times before it is complete.  The final steps include grinding the enamels perfectly smooth and polishing the finished work to create a vibrant and glossy finish.   The resulting enamel gem is further augmented with sterling chain, semiprecious stones, and a hand wrought sterling clasp.

For each piece, there are essentially three elements I consider: lines, shapes, and colors.  I think about the way lines can guide your eye to and through a piece and back again on a prescribed path of my choosing, the lines and colors combining to create off-kilter shapes that, when viewed together, seem perfectly balanced.  I revel in the fabrication of an object; the blade cutting silver; the fused metal glowing mellow red, then shimmering and flowing like water; the layers of enamel changing from grains of sand, to orange peel, to molten hot; the opposite and true colors fading in slowly.

When I am creating a work of jewelry, the experience is an intimate one; I am establishing a dialog with the one person who will ultimately wear it. I have personally crafted each piece of jewelry in my collection.

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