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!

"pocket full of secrets"

pocket full of secrets

3"x 1 1/2"

$295

as the moth and butterfly gather leaves and silk to protect the transformation taking place inside, this little cocoon houses a powerful secret.  the top of the piece slides smoothly upward to reveal a black tourmaline nestled inside.  the stone has been used since ancient times to shield the wearer from the negative influences of others.  

creating this box, i have used the lozenge shape that the ethiopians have crafted for hundreds of years to hold the prayerful blessings of priests and loved ones.  this one is made in that same ancient tradition, fashioned from pure love and pure silver with hints of color from glass enamel.  it is hung on a three-ply black leather cord, caught up at intervals with handmade bronze bands.  from the bottom of the little box is suspended bronze leaf.

sugar maple

sugar maple

glass enamel on copper

with cubic zirconia

$65

these earrings are about 1 3/4 inches long.  when i coated them with clear glass enamel they oxidized a little, producing a beautiful golden copper color with infusions of sage under the enamel.  the veination of the leaf shows in yet another coppery color.  the white CZ is prong set, and the sterling wires are handmade.

berber girl blue

by the time i got to morrocco i realized that i had been in love with tuareg symbols and jewelry for a very long time.  these are sterling silver and glass made in the ancient fashion, with the glass set into the tiny silver boxes with beeswax.  there are many ways to hide a cross into imaginative symbols that might not look at first like what the are.  many cultures incorporated the christan cross in their designs.  these are an exaggerated adaptation of one of my favorite tuareg cross earrings.

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!

daughter of the earth, wind and sky

this is a collar necklace created with a heart theme.  this one is in fine silver enameled with blue and green glass.  the mother earth is depicted as a pregnant figure reclining under the roots of the trees, with her arm curling up and around the sky.  the red heart at the base of the image is the incubating baby.  this is a show-stopping piece!

love is as ancient as the gods and the trees

this is a piece close to my heart.  i love the three metals in the same piece.  the body is a bronze model of a  worm-eaten piece of wood  inlaid with copper.  happy hapy february!

wing and a prayer in silver

 i love using pure silver for gifts of love.  it so expresses the purity of the sentiment!   

continuing with my heart theme for february, this was last bebruary's heart that i never posted.  i seem to get a little crazy this time of year while i'm gearing up to have plenty of new work for the annual Stutz Artists Open House, in april.  it makes me get off track, sometimes, forgetting the little things like posting.  this is the second version of a piece i designed for my sister.  it has the serenity prayer on the back...a prayer that has special significance for both of us.  she wears in on a 5mm wide silver neck ring on which it is stunning, if i do say so myself!

the original 'a wing and a prayer' pieces were bronze, and a little smaller.  the heat patina here shows up, here, very well.

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!

like a phoenix!

sometimes when i'm working, a piece breaks.  it is heartbreaking, but, then it becomes a test of wills, between me and the broken piece........ with me saying, "you will become something beautifull!"

i figured and i studied and i figured and i studied, and i finally figured it out!  thanks to my poppo, or was it my mother? who always said "where there's a will, there's a way!"  so....i made a third piece out of sheet copper and used it to back the broken and weak parts. then, i added some leaves to bring the two halves back to the same level, some texture to the backing copper, and viola!  

 here she is, resurrected, and stronger than ever, in all her glory!

hooray!!!!!

sometimes there's heartbreak....

i have just made the most beautiful necklace.  i worked and worked on the enameling to get it just right.  it was a repaired piece from te get-go, and the heating and reheating must have been too much for it.......

the poor thing broke in half.  don't know if i can fix it.  oh man!  it is a killer when that happens.  i had to take a picture of the broken carcass.  

it has a title, should it ever be repaired well enough to wear....a lovely title. 

 "the gift from the goddess of the night sky"

doesn't that just about make you want to cry?

did i tell you about the bracelet links????

well.  i've been roling ideas around in my mind for months for a link bracelet, thinkini i wanted something that i could eventually make into a watchband for myself.  this is the design i ended up with.

this is basicly how i did it.  i rolled out copper clay

and made a cardstock pattern the shape i wanted, and cut out enough for my bracelet.

i had a mold of a victorian button and cast that in copper

i unmolded the cast while it was still wet, and used water and paste to bond the two.

dried them and fired them according to the instructions on the package.

the next day i took them out of the kiln, rolled out bronze clay, also two cards thick, then cut it into tiny strips 3/4" long and about 1/4" wide, with one strip an inch and a half long.  i dried them flat and fired them.

next, i enameled the copper links with pink and green enamel, and put them aside to cool while i made 14mm copper jump rings.  then i pounded a little 'character' into them.

all that was left was to assemble the bracelet using the flat bronze strips with their ends curled under to make an oval link, with one end around a copper jump ring and the other around the enameled flower link, until it was long enough for my wrist, and finish with a hook made from the one long strip.  viola!  bracelet!  i can even add charms!

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!

designing a new piece

this is a piece that will be a process.  i've been studying on a necklace i picked up on a trip a bunch of years ago, and i have had it on my worktable, in the periphery of my vision for months.  i do this a lot with things i want to use eventually as inspiration.  i'm using it as a springboard for a new design for a 'necklace in the round'.  this is a slide show about using graph-paper to help make a symmetrical base to on which i will begin to make components for the new necklace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vdX7ycmL5w 

i still have to make the rest of the parts, figure out the closure, work on connections, balance, and the finish.  i really want to do enamel on this piece.  it will be interesting to see where it goes........ an evolutionary process.  i'll keep you posted.

    

an easy way to give new life to dry clay

this is a short demo showing an easy way to re-constitute metal clay when it dries out.  it works for bronze, copper or silver, any brand.  when clay dries out it cracks and is hard to cut, sculpt or mold, requiring the addition of water.    kneading water into clay with your hands or in plastic, is a messy process which rarely results in smooth clay.  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKdmAkE90wM

this way the clay comes out as smooth as it is when it first comes out of the package, even if the clay dries out completely.  when that happens you just have to chop it up into tiny pieces first, then, spray with water, roll,  and fold between the plastic layers, until fully rehydrated and smooth.  it takes a little elbow grease, but it's worth it!  add a little oil along the way if you need to. 

simple dry sifting project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2NfhE3ohDo

 i have long contemplated how to add color to my metal pieces, and have tried heat patinas and colored pencil.  both were fun, but not satisfying, somehow.  lately i've been experimenting with glass enamel, and have become very excited about the results.  here are some of my discoveries:  bronze is dificult to enamel, but not impossible.  copper and silver work better.   the last demo in this blog was done in a bronze piece.  also, sifting is easier than wet packing, and i have found i can imbed small pieces in clear enamel.  here is another simple demo on applying enamel, this time with a tiny sifter.