Fold Formed Leaves

Just completed last night...a new fold formed leaf necklace.

I made a necklace similar to this earlier in the year, and when it made its debut at a show, it quickly sold. 

The couple who bought it didn't even look at the price tag.

This design has a bold and striking presence, and that initial necklace spoke to this couple.

The previous necklace was made with brass discs and labradorite dangles.

This time, I chose to use hand cut copper discs.

The discs were annealed, folded in half, textured with one of my Fretz hammers, annealed again and then carefully opened to reveal the leaves.

All edges were sanded with a foam sanding block.

Instead of labradorite, I decided to lighten up this necklace with dangles of aquamarine and freshwater pearls.

I have a preference of locating the clasp on the 'right side' of any necklace so that my dominant, right hand will be responsible for the sometimes tricky maneuver of fastening the clasp.

Without giving it much thought, I decided that the front was as shown above.

But, wait a minute....this 'back side' is pretty nice too.

Again using a foam sanding block, I had lightly sanded the spine of each leaf that had been created by the folding.

I like the contrast between the brightness of the cleaned spine and the surrounding rich, darkness, a result of the annealing.

I've decided this necklace actually has two fronts.