Custom jewelry designers and makers since 1991. Our specialty is re-purposing your old, broken-down, yet sentimentally valuable jewelry into new wearable works of art. Please visit our portfolio to see the pieces we have created for our clients. What can we create for you? Please plan a visit soon. The possibilities are endless!
The Alternative Jewelry Shop was started on May 1, 1991 by Danny and Libby Barnes, two artists interested in offering quality handmade jewelry to the public
Danny Barnes, was born in Sylva, North Carolina in 1963. He graduated from Eastern Kentucky University in 1988 earning a Bachelor of Arts with an emphasis in jewelry design and metalsmithing. Danny received his Master of Fine Arts in jewelry design and metalsmithing from East Tennessee State University in 1990. Danny is a 2003 graduate from the Gemological Institute of America in Diamonds and Diamond Grading.
Libby Williamson Barnes, was born in 1966 in Hazard, Kentucky. In 1988 she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a major in painting and a minor in jewelry design and metalsmithing from Eastern Kentucky University. Libby attended East Tennessee State University as a graduate student from August 1989 until 1990. Libby then received a Master of Fine Arts in mixed media from the University of Kentucky in 1998.
The Alternative Jewelry Shop incorporates a variety of skillful techniques to produce unique works of art. They offer many types of stone setting such as bezel, tension, bead, and setting the stone upside down. The Barneses work with different colors of gold like rose, green, yellow, and white. They also work in sterling silver, platinum, and different karats of gold (10 karat up to 24 karat). Danny and Libby alloy, refine, or trade the customer’s metal. They encase the customer’s personal mementos, such as ashes, flower petals, or photographs, in resin. They fabricate, solder, and in many cases do lost-wax casting. In the lost-wax casting process, these artists consult with the customer and create a 3D digital rendering of the proposed piece in a CAD computer program. The CAD data is transferred to a computer numerically controlled mill or 3D printer where the model is either carved from a block of wax or grown through a thousand or more layers of resin. Next, the wax or resin piece is sprued, invested (in a flask), and subjected to high heat in order to remove the wax. The negative space in the investment, which is created from the removal of the wax, is injected with molten metal. Then, the cast piece it cut from the sprue and finished into a one-of-a-kind piece jewelry.
Phone: 859-885-4109
Address: 118 ½ North Main Street, Nicholasville, Kentucky 40356
Hours: Normal business hours Monday through Thursday 9am to 5pm.
Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years day and other holidays. Please call to confirm that we are here.
Special appointments for custom work per request.