Bruce Hartman was inspired by the rocky coast of Maine to hand carve a carnelian that is at the center of his award-winning pendant

By Shawna Kulpa

From painters and photographers to writers and poets, artists have been inspired by the ocean for centuries, and jewelers are no exception. While many artists find inspiration in the crash of the ocean’s waves, Bruce Hartman of Creek Reflections in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was inspired by the little pool of bubbles left behind after the waves receded from the rocky coast of Maine. Wanting to capture that imagery in a pendant, he set to work at his bench.

He began by searching for the perfect stone for the pendant. “I started out looking at some stone carvings from Bernd Munsteiner in the ’70s,” says Hartman. “I was inspired by his use of matte finishes contrasted with polish.” He went through his own collection of stones, looking for one that would provide the right amount of contrast between the polished sections and the carved area he intended to create. He found what he was looking for in a carnelian he had in his shop.

“I carved the stone to capture the visual lines I had in my head of a rocky coastline inlet as seen from above,” he says. But when his initial shallow grooves didn’t provide enough detail, he continued to carve, going deeper until he achieved both the look and the contrast he desired. Luckily, “the stone was thick enough that I could do that.”

He then set about creating the bezel setting that would hold the carved stone. He temporarily glued the stone to a 26-gauge sheet of sterling silver, and then trimmed the sheet to fit the size of the stone. He left the stone in place while he attached a 1 mm by 4 mm thick silver strip to the edge of the bezel, tack welding it approximately every 5 mm. “The stone keeps the strip perpendicular to the back,” he explains. “If I had removed it, the strip could lean in or out.”

Once the strip was attached, he heated the back of the silver plate just enough to loosen the glue holding the stone in place, and then removed it so he could solder the bezel strip to the back. “I soldered it in place for two reasons,” he says. “It would take too long to finish weld the entire bezel, and I use a very low power setting for the tack welds to keep them small enough that they disappear during the soldering step. Soldering also ensures a good, strong joint.”

After he completed the bezel, he dry set the stone and went about shaping the inlay piece that would sit along the top of the carnelian. He placed a sheet of 30-gauge copper across the stone and then used a burnisher to press the copper down into the inlet, bending and shaping it to match the outline of the stone.

“Hand fitting the inlay to the exact contours of the carved stone was a challenge,” says Hartman. Once he had a rough fit on the copper sheet, he transferred the pattern onto a 26-gauge silver sheet. “I then refined the final inlay backing with files until it fit perfectly,” he says. He fit the silver inlay onto the stone and drilled a hole through the bottom of the inlay, the stone, and the back of the bezel to hold a tube rivet that would help secure the stone.

He removed the inlay from the piece and fused to it fine silver granules and six tubes that would each hold a 0.01 carat diamond. On the back of the inlay, he soldered a small tube that would act as the rivet to secure the stone. Once the inlay was complete, he placed it back onto the stone, inserted the tube rivet through the holes in the stone and bezel, and then flared the end. To complete, he used his pulse arc welder to join the top edge of the inlay to the top part of the bezel, allowing the inlay to act as a single large prong to secure the stone.

Satisfied with the way the pendant turned out, Hartman entered it into several jewelry design competitions. The pendant won second place in the Silver/Argentium category of the 2014 Saul Bell Design Award competition.