This fine silver and enamel necklace has a 20 inch sterling silver rope chain.
height: 1 and 1/8 inches
width: 7/8 inch at widest part
The very labor intensive technique used in this piece is called champlevé. I first cut out a design in fine silver which has negative spaces called cells. That design is fused to another sheet of fine silver. Then the fine silver has to be filed, sanded and polished in preparation for adding enamel. Wet enamel is then layered into the cells using a fine brush, dried and fired with a torch. It takes multiple layers to fill each cell and each layer must be dried as well as fired before moving on to the next layer. Once all the cells are full of enamel the surface of the piece is ground down so the fine silver and enamel have a smooth , flush finish. One more firing and additional polishing produces a smooth, shiny finish.
