Flutterby a Copper Butterfly pendant/necklace

As butterflies do, this one also started it's life as something completely different. A semi-truck battery cable. When I first began my wire journey, my husband blessed me with the cables from one of his trucks, I was and still am a lucky girl!!

But it has also made another transformation, one born of fire. When my younger daughter turned 16, I wanted to make her a necklace symbolizing her change from youth to young adulthood, I chose the butterfly as that symbol and started my prototype. I had in my mind's eye all the pieces fused together. And so we visited the torch. The first piece fused beautifully! Over excited I failed to allow the piece time to cool before starting to fuse the next piece - they melted.

Saddened I set the pieces aside and went to work on plan B, the kiddo still needed a birthday present after all :)

Some time later, a challenge was issued: Make something of beauty from something you wouldn't normally use.

I got to looking around my bits and bobs, the scraps and melted bits - there they were, those little melted pieces of a prototyped butterfly. Rearranging those pieces I got to weaving them back together adding small copper beads, and my butterfly took shape once again. Her dance with the fire had left her wings delicate and easily bent though, and this would not do. I made a second set of wings, forging them for strength and adding them to her already pretty frame, giving her once delicate wings the strength, needed for her to take flight once again.

This little butterfly is all copper - and measures two inches long (5 cm) and one inch wide (3 cm)
She flutters by on a hand formed jump ring along a 16" deep brown leather cord ending with a hand forged clasp.

She already has a patina from her dance with the fire and the weaving will darken over time as well. But should you prefer her bright and shiny a little bath in lemon juice or if you're feeling it some ketchup and she'll be as bright and shiny as a brand new penny.

Hand formed, forged, melted, rewoven and forged again by me :)

To read about the inspiration behind more of my pieces please visit the Inspired and Wired Section of my shop
http://www.etsy.com/shop/winddancerstudios?section_id=6630332