Victoria Varga

Victoria Varga of Cumberland Foreside, Maine, said there are 30 steps to create each unique piece of her contemporary sterling-silver jewelry with inlay.

"The first step involves cutting out my designs from silver sheet. Then I fabricate a rim with silver or stone and build a hollow box for my inlays,"she says, adding that all soldering work is performed before the inlay is applied.

Next, Varga applies 23-karat gold leaf, copper or pastel pigments with resin from the back.

"This is how I achieve a lightweight, three-dimensional inlay," she continues. "After the resin inlay has cured I grind and polish the resin and silver to a high luster."