Metal magic #1

I'd like to blog today about how the metals a designer chooses to use can also effect how a piece of jewelry feels. Gemstones are not the only minerals out there with supposed "magical" properties. Metals do too!

I'd like to talk about my favorite metal to work with, COPPER! I spent a portion of my childhood in the Rocky mountains of MT in a city called Butte. Butte was a mining town... and what did they mine? COPPER! My mother always loved copper so I grew up seeing a lot of it. Its bright orangey color just sparkled to me. When we moved to northern MN, I missed seeing copper everywhere. The only place it was displayed was my mother's kitchen then.

Copper was regarded and linked to gods and goddesses of the sky and/or heavens in many ancient cultures. It was said to be a link to the divine.

Its also a known conductor of electricity. Many people believe that wearing a copper bracelet or other jewelry piece can ease arthritis and other aches and pains. When worn for its healing powers, copper piece are said to be worn on the left side of the body for those who are right handed or on the right side of the body for those who are left handed.

Copper is also supposed to attract love to its wearer.

I use a lot of copper in my jewelry designs. It is a soft, easy metal to work with especially in wire and sheet form. If I am going to be doing a piece in sterling but want to do a mock-up first, I will often do it in copper. There are several examples of my copper pieces pictured here.

Whatever your reasons may be, copper is definitely a metal worth wearing!