Autumn Ridgeline
Kentucky agate set in sterling silver. A singular piece, designed around this individual stone and never to be repeated. Handcrafted by Rachel Savané at Savané Silver, her working studio and gallery in downtown Lexington, Kentucky.
The broad marquise Kentucky agate in Autumn Ridgeline holds a landscape in miniature. Butterscotch and olive tones stretch across the stone, meeting smoky earth colors along a remarkable succession of mauve and brown bands. Their repeating curves rise and fall like distant Kentucky ridgelines, bringing to mind the layered hills when autumn begins to settle over the landscape.
I created the substantial sterling silver band by working the metal directly beneath the flame, manipulating it at the very verge of melting. At that point the silver begins to soften and move, allowing me to coax it into an irregular, sculptural form while retaining the weight and integrity of the metal.
That process leaves its own landscape in the silver—subtle variations, softened edges, and an organic surface shaped by heat and by hand. Paired with the naturally formed contours within the agate, Autumn Ridgeline becomes a meeting of two landscapes: one created deep within the earth, and one formed at my bench under the flame.