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I have been fascinated by these leaves for some time now, I finally got some at the last gem show. Then my mother picked up Alaskan Cottonwood and Aspen while she was in Alaska this summer. I love how each one is different, just look!
The first ones I made for my sister's wedding, it was a Faerie theme, so each bridesmaid had a leaf necklace. Then came the 24k gold Aspen leaf with aventurine and carnelian. Next was a Sterling Silver evergreen leaf with Thai silver and several different semi precious stones, then was the Copper evergreen leaf with some handmade lampwork beads I made in ivory, turquoise and silver, mixed with goldstone and turquiose, lastly a gunmetal oak leaf with picaso marbel and rose quartz. I simply love them.
Unfortunately there are people out there selling "dipped" leaves that are not actually dipped leaves but made using the lost wax technique. While I still believe they are beautiful, some leaves I bough on ebay recently are NOT real dipped leaves. I wish people were more honest. There is no way to really tell when you are looking at the skeleton leaves, but the solid leaves have a void in them from where the real leaf was and you can usually feel it when pressing on both sides of the leaf. If it is completely solid all the way through, you do not have a real dipped leaf, you just have a very pretty cast leaf.
