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'.

links to the faerie circle

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