"Drop of Fire" Necklace.
17" Chain Length.
Entirely hand fabricated piece. The chain is .950 and Shakudo, alternating every link. The process starts with creating alloys, then drawing ingots down into wire threads of a suitable size.
The pendant contains a gorgeous vivid blue Sri Lankan sapphire(paperwork included), a Chivor mine(Colombia) green beryl, and laser corundum melee. 20k gold is luminous, granulation locks the stone in place and alongside prongs. The granulation techniques employeed, an exploration of the possibilities introduced with technology. With this piece I formally introduce to the world, the granule setting technique.
Tony Baxter
Since childhood, I've been drawn to the land: prospecting, searching for artifacts, holding fragments of deep time in my hands. Those early pursuits grew into a fascination with human history, consciousness, and traditions beyond what most in middle America would encounter. Conversations and books written by thinkers like Rick Strassman and David Nichols shaped the way I understand creativity as both a personal and cultural inheritance. Other artists were never the inspiration for me, but rather it was the great thinkers: the shamans, the philosophers, the cosmologists who sought truth. And it's this truth that I seek and explore in my work.
Today, my jewelry bridges time and culture. I work with stones I've personally collected and cut, and I alloy my own metals and shape them using techniques rooted in antiquity and refined with modern technology. My heritage - Irish, Scottish, German, and Japanese - may not always be visible on the surface, but it informs the spirit of my designs. Each piece carries forward the tension between the ancient and the contemporary, the fragile and the enduring, the personal and the universal.
Through my work, I invite others to hold not just an object of adornment, but a story of transformation: the possibility of turning raw matter, and even hardship, into something luminous.
Artist Background
Tony's artistic approach is informed by a professional background in project management and manufacturing engineering - disciplines that reinforce his precision and process-driven creativity. His work embodies recovery, discipline, and craft evolution, turning geological and personal history into lasting, wearable architecture.
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Project Management - University of Arizona, 2019-2022.
Manufacturing Engineering Technology - Apollo Career Center, 2016-2017.
Self-Taught Goldsmith, Stone Cutter, and Lapidary Artist - Ongoing Practice, 2016-Present.
2024- Golden Sphere Studios with Kent Raible.
Selected Works & Collections
Mosaic Series (2022-2023) - Multi-stone compositions using self-collected materials from two cross-country field trips.
Vanadium Beryl Studies (2025) - Optical and color depth studies using darkened bezels and vanadium-bearing beryls from the Gadgi Gum deposit.
"Legacy Bracelet" Project (2024) - Fully articulated silver bracelet with hand-engraved locality marks beneath each bezel; a technical and narrative culmination of North American fieldwork.
"Woven Dreams" 2024-2025 - I left my corporate career in November 2024 and in that time I went through months of dedicated days and weeks to what many know as "viking knit" though the term itself is a misnomer.
Techniques & Materials
Hand-fabricated bezels in various metal types.
Granulation: mixed-metal granulation. Shakud?.
Advanced lapidary (precision-cut cabochons- Navette's, Pears, and Sugarloafs).
Oxidation control for color enhancement and light behavior.
Laser granule setting technique.
Engineering-grade polish and symmetry on high-hardness materials.
Exhibitions / Submissions
We Are SNAG, 2024
Marshall M. Frederick Sculptural Museum: SVSU 2024
All sales on original artwork are final. No discounts apply.