Back to My Workbench

Preparations for hanging my paintings at Burlap & Bean pulled my attention away from the many jewelry projects on my workbench.

The paintings were hung yesterday morning

(with appreciated help from Wayne Art Center friends Mary Lu and Melanie....thank you!!)

and last night I was busy figuring out what to do with some of these fold formed leaves.

I developed this collection of leaves that were actually meant to be a metal interpretation of Koelreuteria seed pods.....

 as I figured out the size and shape for my pattern as well as the preferred hammer and hammer strikes.

I am completely satisfied that my original path ended up veering off in another direction because I am now very fond of these leaves.

 

With the approach of Fall, I wanted to capture the image of leaves fluttering to the ground and turn that image into a necklace.

Different sized leaves were wire wrapped on to a piece of chain which in turn was wire wrapped to a hand forged copper ring.

I wanted to focus to be on the leaves, so the chain was kept uncharacteristically (for me) simple...no gemstones, no beads, nada.

After all connections were made, the entire necklace was treated in a liver of sulfur bath and then cleaned with my favorite sanding block.

A handmade clasp keeps the back simple but elegant.

 

Ready for Fall.