Summer's Flower

Yeah Yeah I know photography is not a talent I can claim. And it's a good thing I don't have a day job not to quit to pursue a career with my camera. (yikes now that is one convoluted sentence) But if you will overlook that small issue you might recognize Leann of Summers Studio amazing clay flower. For me Leann has that wonderful gift of stimulating all my senses with her creations. The day she debut these beauties on her blog I couldn't get to her Etsy store fast enough. Well ya know it wouldn't have been the first time she sold out a piece in a matter of hours!

Once I got it home I was faced with how to incorporate it into a work that would do it justice. I found the cute antiqued branch with the nest and birds while I was up in the Northlands. I thought it would be perfect to dangle the flower from as a focal. Tiny problem though there wasn't a hole or loop on the branch to attach to. I really didn't want to wire wrap it because I wanted the two pieces to flow together so that the flower gracefully hung in mid air as opposed to being attached.

 

I took a short piece of 18gage copper wire, balled the end of it large enough to not slide through the hole in the flower. Because the branch was some undisclosed cocktail of pot metal I couldn't solder the "bail" to it. But thanks to the magical powers of JB Weld the two became one ;), and the flower gracefully dangles from the branch as flowers tend to do. A string of malachite chips and one of small onyx beads is threaded through big oval links of silver chain.

In keeping the flower as the main focus of the piece I wanted the clasp to be as unobtrusive as possible. I also want the whole piece to flow in what looked to be a continuous unbroken circle. I found this very cool clasp in a bead store in the Northlands. Well I think that's what it is. I have to admit to being a real dorkaphile, cuz I really didn't know what these were when I bought them. I just thought they looked like cool thingamajigs to play with. I didn't realize that there were 2 sections that came apart. No, really they looked like they could be some sort of mini pulley. So being the good junquer I grab a few to play with.

It wasn't till I got them home and under the nice bright light on my work bench that I noticed they came apart and snapped together. I have never been to enamored with the "magnet clasps" because they just won't stay clasped. But these snap together like the sewing notion snap, and stay together when tension is put on them.

Now I'm wishing I'd picked up more when I got these. :( Isn't that always the way. Hey, does anyone know if these really are meant to be clasps or are they supposed to be used for something else???

All in all I'm quite pleased with the way the support cast came together to show off Leann's incredible work. Since I was smart enough this time to order 2 flowers (one for me&one to sell) I think I'll test dive this necklace another day or two before I take it down to the store! ;)

Have an audacious art filled day no matter where in the world you are   p;)