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'.