Fold Formed Leaves

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted.  I almost dropped off the face of the earth:  I had two partial knee replacements (and also got a new grand-baby and a new daughter-in-law!)  I haven't been going down the stairs to my workshop very much at all.

Meanwhile, here in Indiana we had a dry fall, which made for some beautiful leaves.  Unfortunately, there is no big hill around here that I know of to get a big sweeping landscape picture from.

Trees near my house

My first day that I could drive again, I had to go out and get some shots.  The leaves were at their peak and the rain that was expected that night would probably take a lot of them down.

It seems it always looks better in real life!

I have been wanting to get back into the studio and, inspired by the leaves, I wanted to make some fold-formed leaves.  This is something I've often read about but never tried.  So tonight I made a few.  Here are the results:

I probably went to a lot less trouble than some people.  First I cut out the rectangles with a pair of shears.  Then I folded them lengthwise and smacked them flat with a mallet.  Then I hammered with a textured hammer, especially getting around the edges.  This work hardened them, so they had to be annealed before opening.  Annealing them gave them some nice colors.  The four in front have the colors just from being annealed.  After opening, I filed and sanded the edges so they wouldn't be rough.  Then I flame-painted some more color on the two in the back.

Anyway, next I plan to drill some holes and make them into jewelry.  When I do, I will try and post some pictures.

ShyMousee's Fall Blog Hop

Shy Mousee is hosting a fall blog hop of handmade items, so I just had to enter a few.

Copper wrapped fused glass pendant

When I think of fall, I think of Thanksgiving and Indian corn.  When I was a kid I was always fascinated by Indian corn, and how people would hang up dried ears of Indian corn as a decoration.  My mother was always too practical for any kind of decorating like that.  I don't really know if it's good for anything else or not.

The glass in this pendant at the right reminds me of corn kernels, and of course, Indian corn.  I wire wrapped it in copper because it is the perfect compliment to the autumn burnt orange color.  Every time I see this pendant, I think of Thanksgiving!






I have been meaning to list these earrings for awhile now, so the blog hop was exactly what I needed to give me a little push.  I got them photographed and listed just this afternoon.

I make the copper charms by hand from copper metal clay.  (They are 100% copper.)  I have attached them to niobium earwires.  These are annodized to give them a nice copper color so they go great with the little diamond shaped leaf charms.  Also niobium is extremely hypoallergenic, so just about anyone can wear them with no sensitivity problems.  Just in time for fall!

Falling Leaves fused glass necklace

Now, this one is an oldie but a goody!  The photos weren't too good, so a took a couple of new ones before I entered it in the blog hop.

It's hard to see here, but I fused the three leaves between a sparkly green background and a clear layer of glass.  Can you see the tiny sparkles?  I also left a space to run a cord or ribbon through it to make a necklace.  The organza ribbon makes a nice addition, because it looks good under the glass.  I call this the "falling leaves" pendant.  I wanted it to reflect all the different colors that the leaves turn in autumn, and I wanted it to look like they were falling from the tree.  Did I succeed?

If you would like to enter Shymousee's blog hop, you can enter it here: