So I walked, and I walked. I looked and I looked. I noted things that I wanted to go back and look at again before I picked what it was I was going to purchase. This girl doesn't take purchasing things lightly... unless, of course, the items are on sale. Then she can't seem to not buy them. I have three new pairs of shoes I bought yesterday to attest to that. The kicker? Only one pair of them fit me properly. But hey! They were all half off! Store closing sales are the best. For the store.
Anyway, one of the pendants that really caught my eye was at a fairly small booth with no one looking at the pieces. An elderly man sat behind the table with his middle-aged son - I have a tendency to find out these details. Hey, I'm nosey, what can I say?
The son explained to me that the pendants I was looking at were actual leaves that had been preserved in various metals. They were all truly stunning. Fragile looking, lacy metallic veins. Absolutely gorgeous. I took about 10 minutes to find the one I purchased, and now that I look around my place, I can't find the little informational sheet that it came with so I have no idea what type of leaf it is...
I'd been trying to figure out exactly what I was going to do with it for months. Hell, even today with my focus squarely placed on it, it still took me hours to make a decision.
I forgot to take a 'before' picture, but here's a list of the things I used:
black coated copper wire (22 gauge)
Soft Flex beading wire
copper colored seed beads
metallic leaf
round nosed pliers
jewelry jig (for making the designs - I'd never used one before as I'd always just done the bending by hand... I have to say the jig really cuts down on time!)
The result:
My bust in the above picture is a bit on the tiny side, so here's a picture of it on to give a bit of scale to the thing.
Over all, I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. I think the one thing I'd do differently next time is add a bit more of the copper seed beads (they're only holding the loops together for the smaller wire) to add a bit more color.
This project took me about 4 hours from start to finish.
2 comments:
haha.. bust small. it took me a minute to understand what you meant. I really like that necklace. The loops are fabulous! I am probably way off but it kind of looks like a birch leaf.
Thanks Icy! You know, I think you're right about the birch leaf! I know that's one of the ones I was looking at buying, so I probably went with it.
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