a closer look

Here's one more pic of that maple out front. My husband took several really lovely shots and this one is a little closer.

It'll be sad to see all of this beautiful color gone soon.

Altered keys

In one of my art groups we have having a challenge for an altered key. Having never done that before, I thought it would be fun to give it a try.
I ended up doing two...and before I knew it..they seemed to have a theme....Spring & Autumn.
The "spring" one was done with a silver key and I wired beads to it and made a batch of shrink plastic flowers for the top. I also added a pin back to it since it seemed so wearable.
The "autumn" was done with a gold key. I put an old jewelry finding at the top, added beads, then wired up and added the square beads to that. The lovely yellow autumn leaves were again done with shrink plastic.
The backside of this one is completely smooth so I left it the way it was so the person who receives it can decide if they want to add a pin or magnet or turn it into a hanging piece.

Yellow this time!

Well...this time I tried the shrink plastic with a photo of a yellow leaf that I'd gotten from a tree beside the pond. I LOVE the way that the yellow turned out. The transparency of this one is even nicer and I found just the right beads to add to it to bring out the colors!
It's official....I'm hooked on this stuff.

The colors

of fall makes me run out of the house with my camera often. This evening was just lovely as the light hit all those trees. I couldn't help but notice a big shadow cast from the trees on my side of the pond creating almost a big gliding bird image.

Seems I wasn't the only one who couldn't help but take pictures today. My neighbor was out on her kayak with her large camera taking advantage of the light and colors as well.

While standing on the dock I turned around and realized that there was a lovely bit of color behind me facing the house. The reds

are just sooo beautiful.

After taking all these lovely views, I of course took a number of single leaf shots to use to make more autumn leaf earrings!

Faux Glass

is what these new earrings look like in the light.

I have been playing with shrink plastic and have had such fun. Using crystal clear plastic I free formed the shapes and gave them a pale pink and green color. When the plastic was still really hot I impressed a rubber stamp into it. They came out looking like antique pressed glass shards. Adding glass beads and wires they make a great pair of earrings. I've just added these to my Etsy shop and will be making more!



The pair of leaf earrings are done using the same plastic. These however are done using a photo taken of actual leaves from a red maple tree in my front yard! The process is quite different and a bit more involved, but I just love the end result!
I haven't added any of these to the shop yet, but plan to!