“How do you make that? I can get a leaf pendant from “so-and-so” cheaper, why are yours so expensive?”
These are a couple of questions I get asked when talking about my leaf pendants. Let me tell you a little about how these unique items are made....
You can buy leaf jewellery from a variety of places. Some are made from moulds and mass-produced in what is know as base metals and sometimes these are then silver or gold plated. Some pieces are real leaves that have been electro-plated. Then there is the way I do it....
While walking my dogs in our local forest, I pick beautiful, fresh leaves from the trees. I look for the right size, the right shape, something I know will make a beautiful piece of jewellery. Once back in my studio, I use silver paste. Now, silver paste is a mixture of pure silver particles, an organic binder and water. This paste is painted in thin layers onto the back of each leaf by hand. I then have to wait for that layer to dry completely. When that layer has dried, I paint another layer...and then when that layer has dried, I add another. This process continues until there is approximately 20-25 LAYERS!!
Once these layers have been applied, the leaf is placed in my kiln and fired for two hours. While the pendant is in the kiln, something magic happens! The organic binder and water within the paste burns away, along with the leaf, and so leaves (no pun intended!) a perfect copy of the leaf in silver that is 99.9% pure! Sterling silver is only 92.5% pure!
This goes some way to explaining why my pendants are more expensive than some others....
* I use real leaves each and every time. No leaf can be used twice as it gets destroyed in the firing process. Each pendant is truly unique
* It takes quite some applying all those layers!
*These pendants are 99.9% pure silver. You cannot get a purer silver!
I hope this helps to answer these questions. If you would like to know more, drop me an email!