Hand-Painted Filigree Necklaces

I have shared my love of hand-tinting and hand-painting metal pieces for jewelry on past blog posts.  I recently had the chance to play with coloring metal jewelry components again.  This time, I took various-sized round filigree stampings, hand-painted each one and fashioned them into necklaces and earrings. Some of the filigree pieces were further embellished with metal stampings (which I also hand-colored); mini aluminum roses or mini crosses.


Here are some of my latest designs:


Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Necklace.  I colored the filigree pieces with mint, white and aqua blue colored acrylic paints.  After base painting the pieces, I dabbed over each with a sponge that was dipped into complementary paint colors.  Once the paint dried, I sealed the filigree pieces with a polyurethane sealant. 

Saint Rose of Lima necklace.  This one was a lot of fun to make.  Since St. Rose is usually pictured with roses, I thought it would be nice to give her necklace a shabby chic look.  To achieve this, I used a base color of white paint on the filigree pieces, then sponged over each with green and medium pink paint colors.  Little pink aluminum roses adhered to the filigree pieces add extra interest to the overall design of the piece.

Our Lady of Guadalupe necklace and earrings set.  Once again, I tried to complement the colors from the image along with the colors used on the filigree pieces.  I used a rich shade of metallic copper, along with bluish-green and rusty brown paints as highlight colors.  Please note the roses along the bottom edge of the pendant utilize the same colors to bring everything into one cohesive design.

I should note that on all of the jewelry pieces shown here, I started off with plain silver-colored filigree pieces.  Once the pieces are painted, no one can tell what the original color was.

All of these pieces (and more) have been posted in my Etsy and EBay shops.  These are all one of a kind pieces and will not be duplicated.

Stay tuned for more new designs to be shared here later in the week.  And - as always - please be sure to join me on Instagram where I often show pictures of my work in process.