When people ask what makes my jewelry different, the answer almost always comes back to one thing: enamel inlay. It's a technique with deep roots in art history — used in ancient Egypt, Byzantine goldsmithing, and Art Nouveau — and it's still done almost entirely by hand today. There's no shortcut, no machine that does it for you. Every piece goes through the same slow, careful process, and the results are unlike anything you can get from a factory.
Here's what actually happens in my Vashon Island studio, from the first sketch to the moment a piece is ready to wear.
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STEP 1 — Designing and carving in wax
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Every piece begins as a design — usually sketched, then carved by hand from jeweler's wax. This is where the shape comes to life: the curves, the recessed channels that will eventually hold the enamel, the overall form. Wax carving is slow, meditative work. A single piece can take several hours.
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STEP 2 — Lost wax casting into sterling silver
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The wax carving is used to create a mold, and then molten sterling silver is cast in its place — a process called lost wax casting that dates back over 5,000 years. The wax is destroyed in the process, which is part of why each piece is truly one of a kind. The resulting silver casting is rough and needs finishing before it can receive enamel.
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STEP 3 — Cleaning and preparing the metal
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The casting is cleaned, filed, and refined — removing any imperfections and refining the channels where the enamel will sit. The surface needs to be perfectly clean for the enamel to adhere properly. This stage takes patience and a steady hand.
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STEP 4 — Packing in the enamel glass
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This is the heart of the process. Enamel is finely ground glass — the same basic material as a window, but with metal oxides added to create color. I pack the dry glass powder into the recessed channels of the silver piece by hand, layer by layer, building up the color with small tools. The translucency of the glass means colors interact with each other and with the silver beneath in ways that are impossible to fully predict — which is part of the magic.
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STEP 5 — Torch firing
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Once the enamel is packed, I fire each piece by hand using a jeweler's torch. Unlike kiln firing — where pieces go into a chamber and heat is applied uniformly — torch firing is direct and immediate. I hold the flame to the piece myself, watching the glass transform in real time: first the powder loses its matte surface, then it begins to glow, and then — in a matter of seconds — it melts and flows into the recesses of the silver, fusing to the metal.
This directness is what makes torch firing both demanding and deeply satisfying. The heat is in your hands. You're reading the piece constantly — watching the color shift and the glass move — and pulling the flame at exactly the right moment. Most pieces require multiple firings, each one building depth and refining the surface. No two firings are ever identical.
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STEP 6 — Finishing and polishing
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After the final firing the enamel surface is stoned flat, refined, and the metal is polished. Findings — ear wires, clasps, chain — are added. The piece is inspected, cleaned, and photographed. From first wax carving to finished jewelry, a single torch-fired enamel inlay piece typically takes between four and eight hours of hands-on work.
| "The heat is in your hands. You're reading the piece constantly — watching the color shift and the glass move — and pulling the flame at exactly the right moment." |
The result of all of this is a piece of jewelry that holds light differently than anything stamped or cast from a mold. The glass has depth. The colors shift depending on how the light hits them. And because torch firing is done entirely by hand — no two firings are identical — no two pieces ever come out exactly the same, even when I'm working toward the same design.
That's what I mean when I say this is wearable art. It's not a description I use lightly. It's just what happens when glass meets flame meets silver, one piece at a time.
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The Summer 2026 collection — new enamel inlay pieces in a seasonal palette — is coming soon.
Join the waitlist for early access: maijabrianne.com/pages/summer-2026