Hi Beth,
I do this but with copper but the same applies for silver.
Main process I use is paint the metal, use a laser to remove the dry paint leaving behind the bare metal I want to etch, then use a galvanic etch to remove the metal, then when etched, remove the paint with petrol.
Quite a bit of work but gives good results.
Some early stuff I did on this thread: Paint/Resist laser ablation
Cheers
Ian