Robert Lee Morris RLM Studio Sterling Silver Hammered Bangle Bracelet - 9 Inch

Robert Lee Morris RLM Studio sterling silver bangle bracelet with a hand hammered surface, marked 925 with RLM, STUDIO, and CHINA inside the shank. The bangle is a slim continuous band with no clasp or hinge, slightly flattened in cross section so it presents a narrow face outward rather than a round wire profile. The entire outer surface is worked with a planishing hammer, leaving overlapping facets that run the full circumference, and the hammering has pushed the edge into a gentle undulation so the outline ripples instead of reading as a perfect machined circle.

That irregularity is the design, not a byproduct. Morris built a career on jewelry that looks forged rather than manufactured, organic forms with the maker's hand still visible in them, and a plain hammered bangle is the purest expression of it. Each facet catches light at its own angle, so the bracelet reads as a moving line of broken highlights rather than a single hard reflection, and it does that at a width slim enough to stack. The hammering also does structural work. Compressing silver with a hammer work hardens it, so the metal ends up stiffer and holds its round better than the same gauge left smooth.

Bracelet size 9 inch. This wears alone as a quiet piece or stacks in multiples, which is how RLM bangles are usually collected.

Details:
Designer: Robert Lee Morris
Line: RLM Studio
Metal: Sterling Silver
Hallmarks: 925, RLM, STUDIO, CHINA
Finish: Hand Hammered
Style: Slim Bangle
Closure: None, Slip On
Bracelet Size: 9 Inch
Condition: Excellent estate condition

Fun Facts:
Robert Lee Morris made the jewelry for Donna Karan's debut collection in 1985, and in 2007 he became the first jewelry designer ever to receive the CFDA Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award. His SoHo gallery Artwear ran from 1977 to 1995 and was the center of American art jewelry for most of two decades.
Hammering silver is not only decorative. Every blow compresses and distorts the metal's grain structure, a process called work hardening, which leaves a hammered bangle measurably stiffer and more resistant to bending out of round than an identical one left smooth. The texture you see is also the reason it holds its shape.