You are welcome, Richard -
I've seen repetitive floral designs done with fine wire, doubled back on itself to make leaves & flowers, but I'm sure someone, somewhere has done the overlay and removal as you have outlined it, it's a flexible technique.
On the silver crosses, it sounds like it might be one of the other ways of overlay that Jens mentioned, if there is no evidence of cross hatching where the silver has worn off - but without a reasonably good photo, I can't speculate further. Can you get a close-up photo to post?
