Moose Spotlight: A Silversmith’s Road to Creating With Intention
Meet Sidney Simmons, the brilliant jewelry artist behind @sonderandsilver on Instagram, she makes handcrafted sterling silver pieces for her customers’ fingers, wrists, necks, and ears.
According to her, she started silversmithing because of an odd reason. She was in an accident back in 2016 which resulted in second-degree burns on 13% of her body. Sidney has dealt with depression on and off all her life, but she shared with us that the accident took her to a new low. She was not able to work due to her PTSD, but she needed a hobby.
Her step-dad graciously offered to enroll her in a metalsmithing basics course, as they thought being able to hammer out a bit of aggression and pain would help Sidney.
“It only took one class. Melting, hammering, filing, matching ends, sanding, and perfecting the edges of every piece became my favorite thing to do,” Sidney declared. She shared that she made herself a handful of rings, which she showed them off on Instagram. Right away, she found a few people asking her to make them something.
“I guess my inspiration was healing myself,” Sidney explained.
Just like other creators, Sidney also has her favorite. She told us her favorite artist she found on Instagram is @ringgoldnicole. According to her, she makes the most amazing recreations of real plants and flowers, and to top it all, everything is hand fabricated. Sidney said that there’s no cast, so it’s tens of hours of work, which really makes you think it's made with love.
She adds that she to try to emulate that kind of feeling with her own jewelry; this is because she wants her customers or anyone who sees her work to feel the love and intention that the jewelry was made with when they wear it.
We truly love it when we hear people creating with intention, and we can really feel the sincerity!
As per her work, Sidney tells us nature inspires her as she is a nature geek. To her, the fresh mountain air is pretty much like her religion. For someone who actively hikes, snowboards, and is a yogi, we can truly see that!
She states on her website that her handmade pieces are “meant to be a little more ‘life-proof’ than most machine-made or mass-produced items.” She is wildly inspired by florals and the nighttime sky, which is why she loves to incorporate flowers, laurel leaves, and little gold moods into her designs. She hopes the handcrafted jewelry she puts out into the world may possibly become a family heirloom. How lovely.
Take a look at some of her stunning pieces!
by Sidney Simmons of @sonderandsilver on Instagram
Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonderandsilver/
Check out her website: https://sonderandsilver.com/
