Give Me a Hand...

Don't you hate when your hand falls asleep and you know it will be up all night. - Stephen Wright

A while back my mom cut her thumb on a tin can...really cut her thumb. She severed the tendon that makes it possible to bend the thumb and required surgery to repair her hand. The doctor was able to reattach the tendon, and using magnification he also reattached a nerve that would give her back feeling in one side of her thumb.

It has been a fairly long recovery for her. Just last week, she got out of the cast that kept her wrist and fingers immobile. She has been going to therapy once a week to help her slowly regain use of her hand. She recently asked me to create a pendant that she could give to her physical therapist as a thank you for her hard work.

I decided to do the pendant in copper enamel. I created a small hand cutout that I could use a a mask. I was able to sift the enamel on top of the cutout and then just pull off the hand to reveal the layer color below. It took some practice and several layers to get the look I was after, but I was happy with the end result. The pendant also has a reverse side with no hand.