Tumbling Leaves Wall Sculpture

While creating my decorative leaf dishes, I was inspired to make a few to hang as a wall accent.  The end result was this Tumbling Leaves wall sculpture which is another one of my entries and on exhibit at the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts.

Here is a peak at the back of the individual leaves in this sculpture.  For the hangers I attached wire to the round section of some toggle clasps and then embedded them into the clay.  I used the same type of hangers for the tree branch section as well.

I was really please how the entire piece came together for me, especially the tree branch which is heavy wire wrapped in tin foil for the armature.  The leaf "fronts" were all baked individually and then attached to the branch for the final baking.  It wouldn't fit in my convection oven so had to use a large roasting pan in my kitchen oven.  I was a little nervous about baking it this way and watched it continuously for a longer baking time than normal to be sure that it did not burn and that it was all thoroughly hardened.