While I am a painter and my focus has been on drawing and painting all my life, I love playing with different types of media. I enjoy learning how to use different tools, how materials behave and how to manipulate them to achieve my goals. In highschool and again in college I took metalsmithing and really enjoyed seeing my ideas come to life.
My friend’s birthday was coming up, and this friend can get herself anything she wants. What do you get someone who has it all? I usually find that handmade, one of a kind gifts mean more and aren’t going to be a likely duplicate of something someone already has. Knowing she loves unicorns and as I want to encourage whimsy, I decided a unicorn suncatcher was the perfect thing. I asked my friend Emerald to use her studio and have her there if I had questions, and she agreed. I drew up a unicorn based off of some clipart and online photos of horses.
I cut out my drawing, traced it on 18 gauge brass sheet, and hand sawed it out. I filed the edges, stamped designs, sanded it, hammered it flat, drilled out the holes (Emerald did two as I was a bit nervous I was pressing too hard and would break her drill bit), sanded it again, and wired the beads and chain on. It took me about ten hours to make. Handmade is the slow way of doing things- but it is so rewarding!