Picking up a torch post-breakup? Ill-advised. (See: the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes.)

Unless you’re self-taught metalsmith Kate Ellen.

The Richmond-based jewelry designer channeled a recent heartbreak into her debut collection, named Acetylene Will after a line in an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem.

She cauterizes and solders her materials, then shapes them with a hammer, to produce a hard-soft effect: Chunky rings are adorned with silver and brass orbs; the Dixon necklace’s sterling silver horseshoe pendant is wrapped in delicate gold-fill rings.

Her in-the-works spring collection incorporates mixed-metal chains and hoops for a glamorous, flowing look.

She’s on fire.

Available at Loft 1513, 1513 Church Street, at 27th Street (415-695-0201 or loft1513.com); online at kateellenmetals.com. Trunk show, January 30, 4-8 p.m., at 7 Third Street, San Rafael.

Photo: Courtesy of Kate Ellen Metalsmithing & Design