SARAH CHILIA is not her real name.

Half Maltese, half Yorkshire, she was born Sarah Cilia but when everyone pronounced it "sillier", the sensible decision was to add an 'H' to ensure the right pronunciation, as in chillier.

Sarah Chilia, is however, the real deal, a York jewellery designer and maker going international places as well as being the Allure Jeweller of the Month for May , June and July at Terry Brett's Pyramid Gallery in Stonegate, York.

Sarah was first featured in The Press in 2004, the year after she graduated with a First in jewellery and silversmithing from her degree course at the Birmingham School of Jewellery in the Second City's Jewellery Quarter.

Brought up in York, Sarah had developed a love of making jewellery when studying design at York College. "We did a bit of everything there: woodworking; ceramics; welding; jewellery, and that's what got me into it," she recalls.

"As soon as I finished my HND in 1999, I started supplying a few galleries in York and Pickering, and I then wanted to develop a style, a focus, so that's why I did my degree. I knew I had to find my 'signature', my own identity, and since then I've always used my 'signature' design."

She was wearing one such piece from her Signature collection at this interview in her home studio, off Tadcaster Road, where her home also bore witness to her skill as an interior designer (as well as to her love of cycling).

"It's the swirls that are distinctive to my work," says Sarah, showing off a necklace that is at once light and yet firm with its combination of tradition and modernity, fine soldering and a wire structure.

"I love the detail, which is the delicate side of it, but though a piece may look delicate, the actual work requires you to be strong. There's hammering, filing and soldering and the use of acid, and then there are the polishing motors too."

Without being morbid, a cursory scan of the neat little studio, with its jar marked "Acid" and all those hammers, could mislead you into thinking this was the lab of a nefarious character in a crime novel. Such is the contrast between the objects that Sarah creates and the tools of her trade.

On closer inspection, you note her drawings, the more precise implements, samples of her work and charts detaling source materials for her handmade work. This is the way Sarah has worked since leaving the jewellery school, where she made contact with exhibitions and magazines that shaped her career.

Sarah exhibited in the 2003 New Designers showcase at the International Jewellery London show, the Inhogenta Jewellery Fair in Germany and the Epso Arte Smykke Gallery in Oslo Norway.

"You get a lot of work from those showcases, such as invitations to show at jewllery exhibitions and galleries and commissions of your work," she says.

"It was through the International Jewellery London event that I received my 2004 commission from Wedgwood, whose representatives had each come up to me separately without knowing the others had done so too," she says.

"They chose a cuff in 18 carat gold and a broach in half gold, half silver, with porcelain inside, for the re-opening of their Regent Street store in London."

Her work has been published in two Lark books, 1000 Rings and 500 Necklaces, again with a knock-on benefit.

"From the 1000 Rings book, I got picked for an exhibition of 200 rings that went all round America, and I might make another design to apply for the New Necklaces book of 500+ Designs From Around The World, which is being put together by Amarillo Joyas. I've got a deadline of July 20."

In Britain, Sarah has showcased in 25 galleries and exhibited in more than 20 exhibitions, such as at the Leeds Art and Design Gallery, "where they hope to have me back", and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park last Christmas.

In 2008, Sarah linked up with the Yorkshire Museum in York's Museum Gardens for a project involving the medieval Middleham Jewel and Middleham Ring and for a public open day, and she also has attained her City & Guilds teaching qualification to enable her to work on education projects, such as an enterprise project with Salford School in Manchester and classes in jewellery techniques at the The Mount School and now for NCFE course at York College.

"I give students their briefs, teach them new skills and then help them through the full process of designing, making and finishing a piece, and then I grade them at the end," she says.

Last October she was invited to work with the National Association for Decorative Arts Association in York, for whom she demonstrated her work and a selection of processes, such as acid etching "where you work with a feather to see how the acid is eating into the etching".

In her most recent collaboration, Sarah was asked by English Heritage to re-create a 17th century love token given to Elizabeth Bassett in 1620 by her husband William Cavendish in the form of an earring in enamel, gold, diamonds, pearls and human hair. The new earring will be on display in the Riding School at Bolsover Castle, Derbyshire, in an exhibition for the next ten years.

"With all the testing and research I did, I had to make the crown three times to get it just right as you're working with such tiny details," she says.

Sarah shows her work at present at Pyramid Gallery, the Saltbox Gallery in Helmsley and Creation Fine Arts in Beverley and she hopes to exhibit next year at British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate and the York Open Studios.

She also designs and makes bespoke engagement and wedding rings, which take four to six weeks to complete, and she is embracing the worlds of Twitter and Facebook to promote her work, as well as highlighting her Signature collection on her website, sarahchilia.co.uk

Probably her best promotional tool of all is wearing her own jewellery. "But I do wear other designers too," she says.

Sarah Chilia is the Allure Jeweller of the Month at Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until July 12.