All items are designed and handmade by Debi Daugherty. I make and design all pieces by hand, but am looking into 3D printed designs. Because each piece is individually made by hand, each one is a bit different from the rest, united by design, but still as special and unique as its wearer.
I started my journey in jewelry making when I was 10 with a design-your-own wire wrapped ring. I would hang out with the artist who made jewelry and cut stones and pester him for hours. He introduced me to the beauty inherent in stone and showed me my first opals, which are one of my favorite stones to work with. It’s a distinctive gem which makes beautiful statement pieces.
Another metal I’ve been working with is niobium. It’s an element closely related to titanium, so it’s strong, light and can be colored with electricity. Niobium is also a pure metal, so it’s not alloyed with other metals. This makes it one of the few hypoallergenic metals.
Years later, I had the opportunity to take metalsmith classes in college and found my creative outlet. I’ve been making jewelry off and on for the last 25 years, and have decided to take the next step and sell some of my designs.
One of my main metal techniques is called mokume-gane, which produces a wood texture in metal. Mokume-gane is a Japanese metalworking process which produces a mixed-metal laminate with distinctive layered patterns, similar to Damascus but using precious metals. Every piece has a unique layering pattern produced by labor-intensive forging of multiple layers of different metals, followed by repeated heating, re-forging, and texturing. Because of this process, every piece of metal is unique and every piece of jewelry is one of a kind.
I use traditional metalsmithing practices: hand cutting my metals with a jeweler’s saw, silver solder, and much, much more, to hand-make a quality product. It’s made with love. What could be better than that?
It’s been a long strange trip to get here. Please check out my shop of handmade jewelry.
