Nugget Jewellery

Our nugget jewellery collection is one of our most popular ranges and it is a characteristic of our style here at Pruden and Smith. Furthermore, they have an enchanting story behind how they came to be.

History of the Nugget Range

When we started our workshops in Ditchling in 1988, we were making a lot of large silverware commissions for the church and other commercial silverware. Consequently, we generated a lot of scrap silver. Rather than sell this scrap we experimented with different products that might use it up. We developed a ‘loose cast’ technique to make the scrap into beads. The real breakthrough was developing a technique that made holes in them whilst still molten as drilling them always broke the drill bits. This was the birth of our highly successful “Nugget” jewellery collection which is still evolving after 20 years.

This range features individually free cast solid silver and gold beads that we string imaginatively into necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Furthermore, choose between silver or gold nuggets or a mix of the two for stunning contemporary jewellery.  We also often combine them with uniquely-sourced and cut semi-precious stones or pearls. We finish off our nugget strings with our classic, strong ‘S’ catch, bearing the P&S hallmark. Moreover, we handmake these free-cast solid silver and gold beads individually which gives them their fascinating natural look. Consequently, they are fabulous whether you’re in jeans, on the beach, or dressed up for a special occasion.

This year’s collection organises the silver and gold nuggets in a random pattern, emphasising their natural organic look. We’ve combined them with faceted peridot, tourmaline, amethyst, blue topaz, iolite, garnet and labradorite. In addition, you can also see this stringing pattern if you take a look at our pearl jewellery section. Here, we have combined the nuggets with giant black oil pearls in necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

Care and Cleaning

Our nugget range is so diverse and exciting: you can have fun with them! Wear them three ways in one by combining your strand with one of our pendants. We offer a restringing service which we recommend occasionally to keep them in good condition. Furthermore, we can even update them to our latest designs and colours.

They are easy to care for, just drop them into a jewellery dip when needed, (check you have the right one for the other stones in your piece), rinse well and buff up with a jewellery cloth to keep them looking their best.