Born in 1969, Darrel Cadman is the brother of well-known silversmith Andy Cadman and a half-brother of renowned smiths Gary and Sunshine Reeves. This group of relatively young smiths (35 to 40 years old) all learned much of their trade from David Reeves (Gary and Sunshine's full-brother who is now deceased). The Cadman brothers and the Reeves brothers, therefore, share a common element of apprenticeship and exhibit certain similarities in their work. Darrel has been smithing silver since 1992.

In March 2007 Darrel began experimenting with new designs based heavily on the use of appliquées and other textured decorative elements affixed to the cuff to lend rich relief and shadowed depth to his bracelets. We watched his creative process advance and bought the first group of bracelets which we felt accurately reflected what he was seeking in his designs (NBR-DRC124, NBR-DRC125, NBR-DRC126 & NBR-DRC127). Now we come to a more recent group in this design series.

At our request, this cuff was bumped up to heavier 12 gauge Sterling as the foundation. The significance of this is that the stampwork, in order to bite deeply and be worthy of this heavier gauge silver, must be stamped twice. The stamp must literally be re-fitted exactly as it was laid the first time and whacked a good, hard second time. Besides the actual weight and feel of 12 gauge Sterling, it is this deep stampwork and the richness of its texture that makes it so special as a material. The appliquées are lighter 14 gauge Sterling and the overall feel of the cuff is nearly as weighty as 10 gauge Sterling. In fact, this group of bracelets is most comparable in weight to the hammered ingot bracelets of Harry H. Begay. Indeed, just as much hard work goes into these pieces because the whole cuff is fully stamped with Darrel's exacting stampwork, even under those places covered by appliquées and the large stone. Consider that each appliquée is individually cut out and textured with additional stampwork or "bumped up" by textured repoussée forms. This group of bracelets is really of exceptional quality and each is set with a magnificent natural, untreated stone.

This piece is set with a thick free-form stone of natural, untreated Broken Arrow Variscite from Nevada. This stone is alternately vitreous (glassy) and creamy lighter green. Mineralogically, variscite is a kissing cousin of turquoise, often found side-by-side with turquoise in mines (learn more about Variscite). A compendium of appliquées decorate this cuff, including heavy starred buttons, scrollwork of round wire and twisted square wire, fanned scallops and diamonds with repoussée centers. Two heavy repoussée starred buttons lead to the terminals on each side. The depth of the stampwork further accents the beautiful texture of this cuff. The edges of the cuff are sculpted with a gentle scallop.

An example of Darrel's work is pictured on page 48 of American Indian Jewelry I: 1,200 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf (photo provided by Chacodog.com). Darrel's usual hallmark consists of a ram's head and "D. Cadman" with "Sterling" stamped inside. Sometimes he does not stamp the ram's head, only "D. Cadman" like in this piece.

Stone: 1 3/8" x 1 3/16"          Width at stone: 1 5/16"

Width of cuff: 1 1/8"

Terminal to terminal: 5 7/8"          Gap: 1 1/4"

Total inside circumference (including gap): 7 1/8"