Most jewellery is soldered. The join is invisible, which is usually the point. Cold connection is the opposite approach: the fastener is visible, structural, and part of the design. At Spruce Crest Path, most pieces use copper or silver rivets instead of solder, and the reason is not just aesthetic. It changes how the piece is built, how it ages, and what it looks like up close.
What a cold connection actually is ¶
A cold connection joins two pieces of metal without heat. The most common method is a rivet: a short post of wire passed through holes in both layers, then spread at each end to lock the layers together. No flux, no torch, no solder. The join is mechanical rather than metallurgical. The rivet head sits on the surface and is visible. In most of the pieces made at this studio, the rivet head is set flush by filing it down after spreading, so it reads as a small circle on the surface rather than a bump.
Why not just solder? ¶
Solder works well for many applications, but it has limits. Different metals, like brass and sterling silver, have different melting points and different thermal expansion rates. Soldering them together reliably requires careful temperature control and the right solder alloy. A cold connection sidesteps all of that. The rivet does not care what metals it is joining. It holds brass to sterling, sterling to copper, copper to brass, without any of the heat management that soldering requires. For mixed-metal pieces, cold connection is simply more reliable.
The visible rivet as a design element ¶
The rivet head is 1.5 mm in diameter on most pieces made here. It is small but visible if you look for it. The decision to leave it visible rather than hide it is a design choice: the construction is part of the piece. The rivet tells you how the layers are held together. It is the same logic as exposed joinery in furniture. The fastener is not a flaw to be hidden; it is evidence of how the thing was made. Over time, the rivet head oxidises at a slightly different rate than the surrounding metal, which deepens the contrast.
How the rivet is set ¶
The process is straightforward but requires accuracy. A hole is drilled through both layers at the rivet position. A short length of wire, slightly longer than the combined thickness of the layers, is passed through the hole. Both ends are spread with a ball-peen hammer or a rivet setter, working in small taps rather than heavy blows. The spread end is then filed flush with the surface. The whole process takes about ten minutes per rivet. The tolerance on the hole diameter is tight: too loose and the rivet rocks; too tight and the wire shears when you try to spread it.
Caring for a cold-connected piece ¶
Cold-connected pieces are durable but not indestructible. The main thing to avoid is forcing the layers apart, which can shear the rivet. Normal wear does not do this. If a rivet does loosen over years of wear, it can be replaced. At Spruce Crest Path, rivet replacement is part of the repair service and costs less than a full resize. The piece does not need to be disassembled to replace a single rivet in most cases.
Cold connection is slower than soldering and the result is more visible. That is exactly why it is used here. If you want to see the rivets up close, the studio is open on Thursdays, or you can look at the detail photographs in the current collection.