guest post - jonathon beauchamp

I am pleased to be a guest contributor on this fine blog site. I have been creating in metal for the past 30 years, but only creating floral and leaves for past 15 years. 

Sunflowers have been a popular theme. I cut out all the parts of a plant sculpture and weld them all together and clean up my welds and paint primer on the bare metal, then paint with acrylic. Often, I attach them to a carved and shaped limestone base. 

A few years ago, a friend showed me a leaf that he had picked up and varnished, from the time his mother died. I used the leaf as a pattern to trace on steel and I cut it out with a plasma cutter. I stamped  on the back side, her name, birth and death and finished it out as close to real as I could. These leaves have become very popular, as a grouping or as a single leaf.

editor's note:
jonathon shares with us his skybird studio flickr account - i encourage you to take a look there, view the diversity of his work - jewelry, metal, stone carving, etc. and read his meaningful descriptions.