A Small Diversion

My main focus of my art is, of course, glass.  Sometimes, though, an idea will strike that I can't pass up.  This time, I was looking at my box full of driftwood pieces to put together some wood backings for glass.  I had quite a few that were simply too small to be of any use for that purpose. 

But, they were just perfect for creating some jewelry pieces.  I drilled them from the front or the side (depending on the piece) and did a light varnishing over the whole piece.  The varnish really brought out the color of the wood and made them quite rich looking. 

Then I simply took some off-white acrylic paint and hand painted a tree on each one.  Some are leafless trees, a couple are pine style trees.  The solid off-white paint is what makes them very simple, yet classy looking.  On two of them I then put some adhesive over the paint and laid on a sheet of white gold leaf.  When all was dry I coated the painted surface again with varnish to seal them.

My favorites are the darker wood.

This one has some of the white gold leaf.

This was such a fun diversion - I can definitely see more of these in my future! And, I got a lot of nice comments on the one I wore this weekend and even sold one at one of my shows!  Yay!

You can look for them on my Etsy shop if you are interested.