Gift #995: Ferns revisited and other spring tidbits

I’ve already done a post on the “We’re All Ears” challenge for April, but I wanted to share one more pair I made.  When rummaging around in my stamping supplies, I found a set of dies with floral/leafy designs.  One of them would work perfectly for a pair of earrings.  I needed to order materials to try my hand at them and they didn’t come in time to make them for the April 15th deadline.  However I did still want to try my idea and I worked with my metalsmithing instructor on the finer points of jewel setting.  Here they are:

I sized down the diecut and hand-sawed the design out of silver.  And then things got a bit complicated.  I wanted to make these post earrings, so I soldered a bit of half-hard sterling wire for the back and the tiny cups for the jewels.  Then my instructor helped with setting the emerald-colored stones.  I believe these are lab-created crystals because I didn’t want to buy real ones while I’m still learning.  I’m pleased to say that they match my vision pretty well.  I’m going to tumble them tomorrow at class to harden up the silver a bit and make them more durable.  I hope that doesn’t damage them.  Fingers crossed.

With all these ferny earring projects going on in the evenings, I’ve been wanting to hike and enjoy more of spring.  A few weekends ago when the weather started to warm up my mom and I went to Eagle Creek.  We saw lots of wildflowers and relished the beauty of early spring in the woods.  Most of the interest was down on ground level as it was still too early for the trees to be leafing out.

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We saw bluebells, trillium, Dutchman’s breeches, wild violets, and …. mayapples!  This is one of my favorite times of the year because the forest is right at the point where mosses, ferns, and early wildflowers take the stage.  Green is still enough of a rarity to be a treasure, but it’s creeping into the lifeblood of the plants more and more.  Abundant sunlight still reaches the forest floor and turns the little flowers to sparking jewels.

How blessed we are to share the world with wildflowers!
Blessings to you,

Sarah