Copper ladybug

My friend Andrea gets in touch with me from time to time to ask if I can make her something specific. I love it when she does this for two reasons: The things she asks for are often not things I would have just made on my own.  And that girl is always happy with the outcome - she is very easy to please.

So when she asked me if I could make her a ladybug pendant to hang from her copper neck cuff, I was excited to give it a whirl. I wanted to be sure we were thinking along the same lines so I sent her a quick sketch of what I was thinking and got the green light to go to the next step.

The basic components are fairly simple - two copper discs that are the same size for the base and the wings and a smaller piece for the top.

I cut a few slices of copper tubing to create the spots on the wings and soldered all of the pieces together. Then I added a slight concave shape to it by using a hammer to shape it over a wood dapping block.

The initial sanding and polishing was promising, but something just didn't feel right about it when it was all cleaned up. So after I tumbled it a final time I tried out a brushed satin finish. That felt right.  I admit I'm kind of in love with it. I can't wait to get it to AVD and see what she thinks!