The outside shape is cut with homemade tools or metal shears. Design work is done with sharp chisels on the anvil. After a piece is cleaned and oxidized it is polished, anti-tarnish treated, inspected and attached to its individual display card.
Any necessary assembly is done with an acetylene torch and silver solder.
Since 1933 Inspired by the blooms outside his workshop window here in the mountains of Western North Carolina, our founder Stuart Nye made his first Sterling Silver dogwood pin by hand in 1933. Since then his original designs have become nationally known and loved. Though styles, uses and sizes are in constant change and we now work in copper and brass as well as Sterling, our basic designs after all these years are still Stuart Nye's. As many things have changed, many remain the same. The tools of our trade are simple ones.