Meet the maker Charlotte Mather

Hi, my name is Charlotte, I live in Croyde, a beautiful little coastal village in North Devon, which is in the South West of England.

My two favourite things to do are to spend time hunting for ocean treasures on my local beaches, and to walk through the beautiful Devon country lanes, both of which are heavily reflected in my shop! It’s full of leaves that I have fallen in love with on my wanders and beautiful shells that have caught my eye.

I have been designing and making jewellery for over 25 years, experimenting with many different methods of jewellery design before I found Silver Clay in 2010, a medium that I fell in love with instantly and have not looked back since.

Silver Clay is an amazing material made of microscopic silver particles combined with water and an organic binder. The clay can be moulded and shaped in a variety of ways, from using moulds of items such as shells and acorns, to imprinting leaves into the wet clay, or simply by moulding the clay by hand. The piece is then left to dry, after which it is meticulously filed and sanded, with any imperfections corrected. It is then kiln fired at a high temperature where the organic binder burns away and all the tiny silver particles fuse together to form 99.99% pure solid silver, which is termed ‘fine silver’ and is purer than sterling silver. The piece is then polishing by hand using a 7 step process which works through many grits to achieve a high shine. Finally it is tumble polished to add strength and give it a final polish.

Environmental protection is super important to me and one of the main reasons I was drawn to silver clay is that it’s environmentally friendly and sustainable, as the silver used to make the clay is recycled from a wide range of sources, I can even reconstitute and reuse mistakes I make, thus eliminating waste. I use 100% renewable green energy throughout my studio and recycled, eco-friendly packaging.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read about me and my jewellery! Please enjoy having a look round my shop and do contact me if you have any queries.

Charlotte