telling tales: fine silver maple leaf pendant

featured!, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

This piece is a happy marriage of parenting with crafting. My other blog deals with my daily life, trying to fit in some crafty moments in, around and in spite of family life. Making these fine silver pendants actually fits in with family life without too much disruption.

Autumn walks with my Wee Guy usually generate a large number of 'found' objects coming home. He collects rocks, twigs, pinecones and I select maple leaves from the ornamental trees near our home. Once collected they are vaselined to an old margarine tub lid to prevent them drying out then painted with art clay silver slurry.

Once a few layers are on and dried I can continue the painting at a more leisurely pace. My studio for this project is up on an old bookcase with all my tools at hand. Whenever I pass I paint on another layer then go and fold laundry or whatever.

Once enough layers have built up the leaves can be fired and polished leaving a 99.9% pure silver 'cast' of the original leaf.

Each one is truly a one-of-a-kind and cannot be repeated since the original leaf burns away in the firing process.