Dawn Rosell Designs

Jewelry quality comes down to materials quality as well as artistic design. It is incredibly important to me to bring you high quality pendants, earrings, bracelets and rings. I use as many Eco conscious materials as I can and to support the artisan community here in the United States.
I use Argentium sterling silver for many of my wire wrap and silver smith jewelry pieces and the best part is that Argentium is made from all recycled sterling silver. It has less copper making it .935 instead of the traditional .925 purity. This makes it more tarnish resistant. I also use every bit of it that I can by melting it into other items like small silver beads for accents. Any scrap I can't use gets returned to be recycled into wire and sheeting, so nothing is wasted.  
The majority of the gemstones I use are purchased from US wholesalers or through US based lapidary artists. I try very hard to source as many jewelry making materials as possible this way using reputable vendors who pay fair wages to their stone cutters. Most vendors are very knowledgeable about the sources of the gemstones they sell, and most are happy to share the information with you.​I enjoy searching the trade shows, websites and Instagram for really unique gemstones. It is a pleasure to get to know the many talented Lapidary artists as well. The way they cut a gem is an incredible art all it's own. It is fascinating to learn the source of the raw gemstones they buy. It's the only way to know where they were mined and the practices behind the sourcing. I find that lapidary artists also try very hard to use every single inch of stone with as little waste as possible.

Custom jewelry is one of my passions. It is an honor working with a client to create a piece of jewelry that is truly unique. I want the earrings, pendants and every thing to be just the right personality for my clients. I love working with loved ones especially to create jewelry for someone they want to celebrate.
The process begins with lots of questions so I can get to know the recipient and the gift giver to create jewelry that will be timeless
and precious. I will then go to the drawing board based on these conversations and sketch a few possible ideas. This goes back and forth until the client and I can get the perfect design.
Then it's off to the studio to get making the custom jewelry. This process takes one to four weeks depending on the materials needed, the number of pieces and the level of difficulty in the designs. 
When it's all done, I take a photo of each custom piece,  and air kiss it goodbye with a wish that it brings joy to the receiver.
​I then wrap it in a gift box with a bow and a gift tag (which I will fill out if it's being sent directly to them) so this precious jewelry gets to that someone special ready to be opened. Every package comes with a polishing cloth, care instructions and the name of any gemstones and metals used in the process. I want this experience to be a wonderful story for you and your loved one to cherish. 

I use semi precious gemstones in my artisan jewelry work.  Let me start by classifying what semi precious means in the geology and jewelry making world. Semi precious gems basically are any gem other than the four Precious gems which are Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. They are gemstones that have less clarity and more variations. I must point out that this is a very old definition and many jewelers and gemologists argue about it because the definition was created as a marketing ploy and many semiprecious stones could fall under the title of precious if we were to look harder at the definition. 

I work with semi precious gemstones because I find that the exact reason they fall under this label is what makes them incredibly beautiful. Gemstones contain many variations in color, in markings and clarity which give them so much character and beauty. Semi precious gems have personalities like us and like us no two are exactly the same. Miniature time capsules and works of art in stone. I enjoy creating with these gemstones a bracelet or pendant because even if I were to use the same style of wrap each and every piece of jewelry would be different. Each pair of earrings has its own feel.  

A list of the gemstones I use in my work: Amethyst, Amazonite, Aventurine, Ammonite, Agate, Azurite, Beach stones, Carnelian, Covellite, Hematite, Jet, Jasper, Kyanite, Larimar, Labradorite, Lepidolite, Lapis, Malachite, Moonstone, Onyx, Opal, Palmwood, Pietersite, Petoskey, Rhodochrosite, Sodalite, Sunstone, Tiger eye, Tiger iron, Tourmaline, Turquoise, Quartz

Where I source the gemstone?

Most of the gemstones I use in my pendants and all my jewelry are made by Lapidary artisans here in the United States. I go to gem shows to find new sources, but I love working with artisans because their gems are very high quality and each piece is cut uniquely to show off the most amazing natural beauty. Many times the lapidary artist will find just the right angle and make the stone look like a painting or landscape. It makes each piece even more unique.  I also try to source all of my other gems and materials through fair trade and reputable sources. I want my jewelry to have heart in the work I create and in the sources of my materials. It is very important to me to give back and support this outlook. If it isn’t artisan made I try to make sure that it comes from fair business practices that support a community by using reputable vendors. 

If you would love to know more about some of the gemstones I use in my jewelry check out my blog, the gemstone blogs delve into the science and the metaphysical properties of the gemstones, shells and metals in my work.

I also use natural seashells and natural pearls in my work for the same reason as I use the semi precious gemstones.

List of shells: Mother of pearl, Abalone/Paua, Wampum, Cultured Pearls

Sea glass: The Natural sea glass I use in my pendant and bracelet collection is sourced from the beaches of Cape Cod during walks on the beach collecting my thoughts and some calm along the way. The cultured sea glass I purchase is used mainly in earrings to make them more uniform and comes from recycled glass that has been cut and sand tumbled to create the recognizable soft finish of sea glass. I am currently phasing out the cultured glass for the more desirable natural glass.

This is a small collection that I use to create a cost conscious line for special occasions and more. It is hard to deny that they create lots of sparkle and shine and as such they draw us into their fire.

Argentium Sterling Silver and Hill tribe Silver. 

Both types of silver are sourced through fair trade and/ or recycling methods. Argentium silver is made from recycled sterling silver exclusively. During the process some of the copper content is lost and is replaced by germanium which makes the silver more pure at .935 instead of .925 and creates a silver that is tarnish resistant and can be fused as well as soldered.  Hill Tribe silver is also a more pure sterling at .98 up to .995.  This silver is created in Thailand by the Karen Hill Tribe silversmiths using traditional tribal methods under fair trade. 

Gold and Rose Gold Fill.

Gold fill is a process where a real gold tube is bonded to a core of base metal in a layer that is 3 or more times thicker than a platted item. The amount of gold must be at least 5% of the entire weight of the item. Gold fill metals last a very long time and will not tarnish. With proper easy to care gold filled items will last a lifetime. I use gold filled metals in my work for the beauty and its ability to stay beautiful while being less cost prohibitive.

There are many techniques and styles when it comes to wire wrap jewelry and they can be used on their own or combined together to create magnificent pendant, earrings, bracelets, rings and more. Let me share with you all the types I use in my  jewelry and how I use them. I will be putting them in order of how I learned them and how I used them to grow as a designer of gemstone jewelry along my journey.

Organic style.

This is the style most people recognize when a friend says they began learning to make wire wrap jewelry. It is the beginning of how most wire wrap artists learn. It is a more rough style and leans towards the use of wire to simply capture or hang a gemstone in a way that shows the gemstone as the most important piece of a jewelry item. It includes a style that looks almost like chicken wire in how it twists together leaving open spaces all around the gem, as well as simple spirals and thick wire to capture the stone with one wire, such as making a spiral cage around a gem. It also usually includes gemstones that are drilled so that a wire can be put through the gem to secure it into a frame. 

Organic styling would also include chaos style and crochet but these are a more advanced technique that takes more practice and falls farther into my journey, so we will come back to them later.

Traditional Style.

This style of mking jewelry was the next level in my journey and is another one you will often see when you look up wire wrap jewelry. Also it looks rather simple in all those tutorials on you tube, but I assure you it is much more difficult than it appears. It is the style in which a jewelry artist creates a frame or bezel around a gemstone with multiple wires that are wrapped by a smaller one. The top most and bottom most wires are moved onto the capture to secure it into the frame. It becomes a fancy picture frame for the gemstone basically and getting it secured so the stone stays where it is meant to and making that frame as symmetrical as possible is rather challenging.This technique has taken me a very long time to master, and I love it because it can be combined with other techniques and be a simple or fancy as you like to create. I do find many who ask me does this style make the jewelry more delicate? The answer is yes and no. It all depends on the artist and the design. The less connections and bezel framing a piece has and the thinner the wire, the more delicate it will be. I personally am obsessed with making my pendants and jewelry as secure as possible. I like to be able to wear my jewelry in almost any situation which means it must be secure and strong. Of course if I use an opal, the gemstone itself may be delicate even if the frame and setting are not, so it is a must to take care of your jewelry properly.

Wire Weaving.

Wire Weaving is a technique where you have base wires and a thinner wire that weaves between them to create a frame or bezel. It can be a simple frame where the gemstone nestles into it or it can be incredibly complicated where different weaves connect and wrap around the gem in multiple ways. Sometimes the back is simple with just braces to hold the gem in and sometimes the weave wraps completely around the gemstone. This style has many types of weaving and wrapping techniques that come together for some magnificent designs. It is deceiving how much wire is used in even a simple design ( it’s rather a lot of wire). I use the wire weave technique mostly in smaller batches or to add interest to a traditional style piece. But once in a while I stretch my wings and create something a bit more complicated for fun.

Crochet and Viking Knit.

Crochet is just like what you think of in the yarn form. It can be made right on a needle and is one wire looped around itself or a frame to create textured sections between wire base wires or to capture a gemstone. It reminds me of the way a fishing net looks when it is around a gem. Viking knit is the same technique of looping around a dowel and then drawn through a plate to make a chain. I have used the crotched technique to create rings, earrings and pendants and do enjoy using it in my work.

Silversmithing is the technique where you forge the metal to create jewelry. Soldering,shaping, fusing, hammering, cutting. Piercing, rolling, etching are all just some of the types of techniques used in silversmithing. I mainly use hammering, shaping, fusing, cutting and soldering in my silversmith arsenal to create jewelry in my cape cod studio. I began learning to solder and fuse just a year ago and I am continuing that learning as it expands my capabilities and possibilities in my designs