Goldsmith and Jewelry Designer
Jerry Scavezze has long enjoyed black and white photography for its focus on light and space. He has taken this appreciation from the two-dimensional world of photography to his three-dimensional jewelry designs. Over the last 20 years, he has worked in all facets of jewelry fabrication, including casting, forging, stone setting, repousse, reticulation and raising.


Gold & Diamond Post Earrings
$700

His latest work is created using a jewelry making technique called Anticlastic Raising - a technique used to deform sheets of 14 Karat or 18 Karat gold by compressing the center and stretching the edges of the piece. This work is done with polished hammers of varying shapes and sizes. To this finished form, we then sprinkle on Diamonds, Rubies, Sapphires, Fancy Sapphires, and other gem stones. Each piece is individually handmade.


Gold Anticlastic Raising Bracelet
Bangle with gemstone
$984

Anticlastic Raising
Anticlastic raising is a process by which metal is deformed by using polished hammers and plastic mallets of various sizes and shapes. Anticlastic refers to the direction in which the metal is deformed. On a flat sheet of metal, he draw two axes (plural of axis) 90 degrees from each other. If you then bend one of them up and the other down, you would have an anticlastic shape. If both of the axes were bent in the same direction you would have a Synclastic shape. A synclastic shape looks like a bowl, an anticlastic shape looks like a saddle.


14k Gold Hoop Earrings
$384

Anticlastic forming is done using steel hammers on plastic stakes or plastic mallets on steel stakes. Metal doesn't want to bend this way, so it must be gently persuaded with the hammers. No molds or castings are used. For example, the metal is not hammered into the shape of an earring, but formed freehand over the stakes. Nothing is soldered or added to the earring, even the earwires are formed out of the same sheet of gold or silver.

Because of this technique the metal becomes very work hardened, which makes it very strong and very springy. This enables Jerry to use a fairly thin gauge metal sheet, which makes his jewelry exceptionally lightweight. Many courses or passes are required to deform the metal into the desired shape.

After each course, the metal must be annealed (softened by heating), to restore its workability. If too many courses are done without annealing, the metal becomes brittle. Once the desired shape is reached, the metal must then be planished all over to remove any hammer marks or irregularities. The piece must then be polished and/or sandblasted to create the finished piece. Each pair of earrings will be mirror images of the same size and shape.

Artist Statement

Anticlastic raising is very sculptural and 3-dimensional in nature. A lot of jewelry looks good from the front, but from the side or back is really not very interesting. The pieces I make are meant to be viewed from all directions as they do not have an obvious front or back.

I have always been fascinated by movement in jewelry and have experimented with parts that rotate, slide, spin, or otherwise move. I am excited about my current work because of the fluid movement it conveys, yet it is very simple and clean looking. The reflection of light off of the curved surfaces contributes to the feeling of motion as does the physical movement of the piece on the human body.

Our earrings, which are really abstract sculptures, are accented with diamonds and pearls to become treasured pieces to be handed down for generations. Our work is literally done with hammers the old fashioned way, and then meticulously polished. Ancient techniques are used to make contemporary art jewelry. Designs are worked and reworked until they are just right, because an earring can't just be gorgeous, it has to fit right and be comfortable.