Current Collections:

Drystone Wall Series I - stone oxidised and polished silver and Series II - plants enamelled silver

Natural forms including leaves and shells,  textured and enamelled silver

Wayside Flowers - local flowers and herbs, hand-drawn silver etchings 

Golden Ripple - inspired by waves and wakes of boats, silver and brass

Seam of Silver is a business run by designer-maker Helene Shovlar, making distinctive, contemporary jewellery for men and women, using traditional tools and techniques.

Her inspirations are a combination of her interest in the colours and textures present in nature, local landscape, as well as historical artefacts and middle eastern textiles. She has recently designed a new collection, shown here, inspired by local drystone walls. It includes pieces in polished and oxidised silver and enamelled pieces abstractly based on the plants which grow in or on the walls such as mosses, lichens, forget-me-not and brambles.

Many of the pieces in this collection are completely original and unique and include necklaces, earrings, rings and cufflinks.

Helene continues to make and develop her original collection inspired by natural form including leaves and shells.  Some of the pieces are representational, some are more abstract.  Some are textured with birch leaves, some are enamelled in a palette of natural colours using a goose quill.  She adds new colours to this collection from time to time, the latest being a combination of three reds (here shown accessorised with garnets).

This is the collection Helene is working on at present in her studio at Farfield Mill.  Each piece of silver jewellery started with a hand-drawn design, then worked onto brass, etched in acid and rolled as a 'print' onto sheet silver.  The silver is then oxidised to blacken it and then most of the oxidisation polished off to leave a dark outline to the raised etching.  The drawings are wayside flowers, herbs and grasses from the Yorkshire Dales National Park, including fennel, camomile, wild roses, clover and buttercups.  These earrings show grasses and thistles.

A new collection inspired by light and water, waves, wakes from boats and silvery full moons