Pear Blossom

My latest design. Took me all of a whole day to make this, but I think it was worth every minute. I had fun designing this as I tried out lots of new techniques and combined them with old and tested ones.

I started off with the leaves - lovely heart shaped leaves that I made from thick copper wire, then hammered flat, finally I added the veining with thin copper wire. When all three were done, I first scorched them with my new pencil torch, rubbed them with some wire wool, verdigrised them to an old family recipe (watch this space, I'll post the process), and, finally, varnished them to make sure the verdigris would not react with the skin.



The next step was the pretty chain for the necklace and bracelet. They are both made of figure of eight links in a mix of copper and bronze, and the ones for the necklace are graduating from very small to quite large. The links for the bracelet are made with links that are all of the same size in a ladder design. Some pretty handmade (of course!) clasps and then it was time for the next step.



The blossoms are made mainly from rosequartz - a large briolette, chips, a lovely smooth nugget, a pale pink glass bead, and some rosy seed beads (teeny and Japanese).


Now it was all ready for the final step, the assembly and here are the finished articles: