Meet the Artist

Nicola Crawford

I am 30 years old, living in Sittingbourne and currently undertaking a degree in Art and Design: Creative and Technical Practice at the University College for the Creative Arts at Rochester. I started making silver clay jewellery as a hobby but would like to start my own business.

Art Clay Silver is a fairly new product manufactured in Japan. It is made from powdered silver, which is extracted from recycled materials and is then mixed with a non-toxic binder and water. It becomes a clay like material and when it is fired at the correct temperature the binder burns away and the silver fuses together leaving a 99.9% pure silver piece.

I like taking inspiration for my work from nature and I have found this is the perfect medium to work with. I use real leaves and press them into the clay, which reproduces the lovely texture and veins from the leaf. I then cut around it and once it is dry I file it, fire it, then hand polish it, which results in a beautiful completely unique pure silver leaf. I use Semi precious stones, fresh water pearls, Swarovski crystals and cubic Zirconias to add a hint of colour and sparkle to the leaves. All chains, ear hooks etc are sterling silver.

Each piece is completely unique due to each leaf being different even a pair of earrings isn’t completely identical.