Sharon Saindon's jewelry marries sturdy metals and a feminine touch

Port Townsend-based jewelry designer Sharon Saindon creates metal jewelry that calls to mind images from nature: the heavily textured center of a daisy or the subtle lines of a maple seed. Saindon, who received her BFA in metal design from the University of Washington, thinks of her jewelry as small-scale sculpture and designs with attention to texture and shape. Her unique silver and gold jewelry is the happy marriage of sturdy metals and a decidedly feminine aesthetic.

Though Saindon's jewelry has an understated, earthy feel and her pieces are inspired by natural details like seeds collected in her garden or a coastline, the process of creating each piece is intense. Working with fire and extreme heat, Saindon has to remain focused at all times and could easily burn herself or melt her piece if she's not attentive throughout the process. "It makes you very present in your work," she says.  

Saindon, who has studied and interned with blacksmiths, uses a process called fabrication to create her jewelry. Unlike casting metal jewelry, which is pouring heated metal into a mold, fabrication requires the designer to use steel hand tools to form metal wire, sheet and tubing into individual pieces of jewelry. Through fabrication, an accomplished metalworker can produce "more attended-to pieces of jewelry that are never exact replicas," Saindon explains.

Chasing and repoussé are techniques Saindon uses with highly patterned pieces such as her bumpy cuff. Keeping a metal sheet supple over a bowl of heated tree pitch, Saindon hammers the sheet with special steel hand tools to create intricate designs in the continuous metal. As do most of Saindon's techniques, this metalworking technique has a rich history: one that dates back to the third century B.C.

Saindon likes that her jewelry will last virtually forever. It can be buried or tossed aside and, since it's crafted from some of the least corrosive substances on the planet, it will survive. Aware of the impact each piece could have, Saindon ensures that all of her earrings, bracelets, necklaces, rings, brooches and hair pieces are durable yet light enough to be "worn a lot and loved a lot." Her silver designs start at $90 -- earrings average $130 -- and her gold pieces start at $250.

Sharon Saindon designs are locally available at the Seattle Art Museum store and the Bainbridge Arts and Crafts center. You can review a complete list of upcoming trunk shows -- including the December 19 trunk show at AOT in Port Townsend -- on Saindon's Web site. If you'd like to buy pieces online or submit a custom order, you can do so on Saindon's Etsy site.

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