before the wine

three grape leaves and two viburnums

they are imprinted from some of the earliest leaves of spring,

 so, 'before the wine'

$175

these copper leaves are delicately hinged together, and weighted at the bottom, so they hang in a graceful necklace, and fall back into the right place as you move.  the hand-made chain started with plain 14 gage copper wire, pounded into a textured metal plate of my own manufacture.  the copper links are connected with bronze links made from flat textured strips.

i've almost finished with another 5 leaf necklace finished with glass enamel and tiny glass beads.

i love the natural metal, but i am so enjoying experimenting with new ways to add color to my work.

too much fun!

the missing links

'before the wine....'  is a new necklace with a new hand made  chain!  i've been searching and searching for patterned wire to make a chain for my mixed leaf links.  all of a sudden i said to myself, "leigh, you can make your own patterned wire."  duh!  so...
i just pounded copper wire into a bronze plate with a simple twig design. now i'm figuring out how to make different designs that i can pound into my wire to make different chains.  the connecting links are bronze strips that i made with a lined texture plate.  now i'm off to the races!

painted lady pendant

painted lady

glass enamel on copper, bronze medallion, and copper neckring

$95

i've had so much fun playing with my glass enamels---it's called painting with fire!  and it is!

heart of my heart

eacch year in febroary, i make at least one new heart piece. each new piece has been inspired by a gift of love.   this year i continued with the theme of heart defined by angel wings, which, to me have always meant transcendence, combined with the lotus flower, representing the heart chakra, the center, in the body, of joy and love.  after trying several diffferent things, i finally setteled on finishing these with a heat patina.  the copper reacts with heat from my torch with various colors ranging from intense blue through metallic greens, pinks, rose, and eventually black.  the results are sometimes unpredictable, and hard to photograph.  i said i'd keep you posted, here are the finished pieces, titled 'heart of my heart'.

heart of my heart

here's the heart/wing pendant with the lotus, after contructing it in copper clay and firing it.  the copper finish is lovely, but i have been experimenting in glass enamel finishes, and also heat patina.  glass enamel has proved problematic, i think because the piece is not of consistant thickness, and the design is raised.  i've had some nice results with the enamel, but not what i expected.  soldier on....i'll keep you posted!

new project for the month of love

new project, new month new year!  i'm working on a special project designed for a group of women to give to their yoga teachers.  i am so in love with gifts of love!  especially in february!  this is the design i came up with for them:  wing/heart shape for love and trancensence, and the lotus for the heart chakra.  it will be in copper, and probably enameled, and with a stone in the middle of the flower.  i'll keep you posted!

links to the faerie circle

here is the necklace with all it's links.....next step, add color!

starting to feel the magic

i'm so excited about this piece!  the links came out well....i'll post pics of them tomorow.  and i hope to begin enameling the pieces tomorrow.  i still have to work out the closure and there will be blance issues with the heavy front, but here it is!

the continuing story of the double dog portrait

i made a new mold of the teddy and sarah portrait yesterday.  i had a bit of trouble as the first metal one that i cast.  it cracked, and had to be put back together with beeswax before i could make the new mold.  don't know exactly what happened to make it crack.  it was in a place where it had cracked in the greenware state. ......that would be because i, never leaving well enough alone, saw that it had warped slightly and applied pressure to the copper greenware.  thus..... it cracked.  i repaired the crack with paste, but it broke again in the firing.  i could have gotten away with that if it were in the bronze clay.  i paste things together all the time.  i forgot to put any lavender oil in the copper paste, so maybe that was it.  any way, having lost my confidence, some what, i cast the new mold in metal clay adventure's bronze.  i really like the bronze, and the shrinkage is the same as their copper, so it fills the same purpose.  the piece came out beautifully, and another third smaller.  still have a couple of firings to go, though to gt the size i want, but aren't they pretty?

there are a couple of tiny marks that shouldn't be there, but i filled them and they should come out in the next casting.  i cast it in copper this time, and i'm drying it slower with weights in it, so we'll see if that stops the warping.  i'll let you know tomorrow....... it should go in the kiln, tonight.

wonder how i should mske the bail???

seeking out new territories

i seem to be in an accumulating stage....making components and waiting for the inspirations that will put them all together.  my facination with leaves and natural forms continues, and i'm trying a new material, copper clay, which will expand my options in color and texture in my work.  too much fun!  these are the new leaves i made in copper, the only metal clay that i had not tried.  i cut out the leaves three cards thick, and dried them over short lengths of drinking straws.  i used the imbeddable eyelets made for bronze clay, and hoped for the best.   following the firing instructions on the clay package, as i could not find much other information, i held my breath and fired up the kiln.    the leaves came out beautifully, the bronze inserts worked just fine.  whooo hoooo!  i am so excited by all the possibliities before me  ...........................i'll keep you posted!