Luck of the Irish...

Time to just have some fun here.  True story, the previous resident of my home was named McMillan. When he moved, he left various things like a sofa and chairs, silk plants, a funky clay flower pot shaped like an animal, a lovely framed poem by Kahlil Gibran (FYI, Elvis was a fan of his work) and various other things.  Some of them are still around here, but I did send the sofa and chairs away!

Every early spring in a flower bed, there are some white iris bulbs that come up.  Right next to those, years ago, I noticed some tiny clovers growing in a pot.  They always make their appearance toward the end of January.  They went from the one pot, then the next year skipped to another area where there is a tree and ground cover.  They popped up there again and this year, they popped up in the side yard.  They will soon be gone as the weather heats up, but they are so fun while they last.

I decided it was time to experiment and see if I could get the clovers to impress images on metal.  They are super fragile to begin with and I dried them between pages in magazines.  I experimented with milling those onto copper and it did work, however the images were not pressed in as deep.  Still, the detail is pretty good.  The dry clovers or shamrocks are really delicate and if I bump one with my finger, it will crack after it's dry.

I was talking with someone last weekend and he asked if I would make a clover pendant with the fine silver.  It's funny that he asked because the copper pieces were samples.  I didn't want to try it on the silver until I knew it would work.  I will be making some more rings and pendants with the clovers.  I've had some positive feedback on these.  Not sure if it's the season or the luck of the Irish???