Moose Spotlight: Modern Swing On Classic Styles of Jewelry
Over the years, Moose has witnessed a lot of amazingly talented up-and-coming jewelry artists, silversmiths, metalsmiths, goldsmiths, and the like in the community. Incredibly impressed with their design style and knack for creatively translating their brilliant ideas into stunning pieces of jewelry, we thought it would be great to feature their journey to jewelry making.
MEET THE JEWELRY ARTIST
Morgan Green, a jewelry designer living in south-central Montana, has been making jewelry for about a year now. You can find her work mainly on her Instagram account, under the handle @morgangreensilver. If you happen to love her design style, you can definitely request a custom order!
THE JOURNEY TO CREATING JEWELRY
Morgan has always loved jewelry as a form of self-expression, with this she got inspired to create jewelry.
As a relatively new silversmith, Morgan shared that she strongly believes that there is no shame in not being self-taught. She said she took a basic soldering and jewelry-making class, including a week-long bright-cut engraving course.
The connections and knowledge she was able to gain from these classes have been truly invaluable to Morgan.
ARTIST’S DESIGN STYLE
Most artists, if not all, have their own style in creating jewelry. For Morgan, she remembers her first AHA! moment where she felt really pleased with her design. It was when she created a statement ring featuring an engraved flower, accents, and a rectangle-shaped Sand Hill turquoise cabochon.
According to Morgan, it was actually one of the first pieces she made that really felt like it was 100% her. The combination of Western-style, bright-cut engraving and beautiful turquoise is the epitome of her design style.
Morgan’s designs are notable not just because of their beauty, but of their uniqueness and all the details that are evident in her jewelry pieces. She shared that she has roots in Western Cowboy culture, so her style is incorporating turquoise with bright-cut engraving.
She remembered that one of her clients described her jewelry as having a “modern swing on a classic style,” and Morgan said that’s exactly what she’s going for.
Take a look at this beautiful turquoise ring by Morgan!
THE DESIGN PROCESS
Since Morgan mainly does custom work, her design process goes something like this. She gets an idea from her client, specifically what they are looking for. From there, she creates and makes a sketch of the designed piece using pencil and paper. and make a sketch of the desired piece using pencil and paper.
Usually, a strong cup of coffee and some Queen in the background are both involved in her design process!
Check out these gorgeous jewelry pieces by Morgan!
JEWELRY DESIGN TIPS, TRICKS, AND HANDY TECHNIQUES
When we asked her for a design tip she wants to share, Morgan humbly replied that she felt so unqualified to answer the question as she has only been smithing for about a year. However, she mentioned this really amazing tip that we find so useful.
In her words, “One tip I think is so useful is when soldering next to any stamp work or engraving, you can cover the impressions in a whiteout, and it will keep the solder from flowing into the design.”
For those who are aspiring to be part of the jewelry-making world, Morgan said that the connections she has found through jewelry-making have been supportive, and most seem to value community over competition. She thinks originality is one of the best qualities of an honest maker.
Truly great words of encouragement and tips for those who want to start out in the world of jewelry-making!
Finally, here’s a message that Morgan wants to share with the universe.
Follow her on Instagram: https://instagram.com/morgangreensilver/
