Hilary Hachey

I am a metalsmith focused on creating artistic adornment. My minimalist designs are hand-fabricated in sterling silver; sometimes embellished with non-traditional materials such as fabric and thread. Starting with sterling silver sheet, wire, and tubing, I build by sawing, soldering, forging, and forming. Other techniques include riveting, piercing, depletion gilding, and sewing. Structures are finished with contrasting surfaces of matte silver and oxidized (blackened) silver. Some pieces are embellished with fabric treated to stiffen for a sculptural application. Sewn to cage-like structures of silver, light travels through the fabric revealing the simple beauty of the form. My aim is to juxtapose a fluid, colorful medium with the traditional medium of jewelry making: metal. My aesthetic stems from architecture and interior design. The minimalist philosophy of the Bauhaus movement resonates. I consider my work to be architectonic, “a perceived sensibility to form and design that prefers the simple over the complex, and the well-built over the mass produced.”