Joyce Branigan has been a silversmith since 2001. She has been around the art since she was a child.  Richard Fetrow, her father, began silversmithing in Council Bluffs in 1973.  Joyce became his protégé. Using techniques passed down from her father, she is now a working artist, showing her jewelry in art galleries, art shows and high end craft shows.  Joyce hammers, solders, saws, forges and fuses sterling silver to create distinctive, beautiful, one-of-a-kind jewelry.  All of the work is done by hand.  Lately Joyce has been preforming lapidary work and enjoying turning stones into beautiful wearable art.  

Silversmithing has become a passion for Joyce. She has used jewelry as a way of expressing her uniqueness and now she shares it as an art form.

I began my journey into silversmithing in 2001 and was hooked from my first piece. I love the process of taking silver wire, sheet, or even silver scraps and molding it into my own design, an expression of me. All of the work is done by hand. I hammer, saw, solder, forge and fuse to create my distinctive jewelry.  I also use natural gemstones in my jewelry and have started performing lapidary work so I can cut and polish my own stones to use in my designs.  Fossils and crystals are favorites of mine, especially the ones that tell a story.  None of my jewelry is cast in duplicate or pre-fabricated; each is distinctive and unique.  Some of my pieces are bold, dramatic statement pieces and others are dainty, elegant and even whimsical.