Metal Bracelet Class and a garden visitor

My copper cuff

 I took my final class in Berea today.  I had to leave a good church day to do it- hate not getting to chat with my friends after church.
I was back at Gastineau Studio for more metal work.  Today was bracelets. We got to chose the shape, size and metal for our bracelets. I opted for copper again, though brass and nickel silver were also options. I sort of was drawn to an asymmetrical shape, wider at one end that the other as a cuff bracelet but I opted for a 1.75 inch cuff instead.
The design I had swimming in my head was not the design that ended up in my bracelet.  Maybe it was the one in the back of my head that made it to the front instead!
I seem to always have a more symmetric tendency rather than free-style but I guess that's just MY style.
I hammered away at the flat copper until it looked like this

 Yep, got to use those super cool tools again!

 I decided that dividing this long strip into sections would be easier for design for me.

 My instructor has machinist tools that made it easy to score light lines where I wanted to make the sections. Then I filled in the space. I knew I wanted something in the center.

 Next was the gentle shaping, I opted for just a gentle bow not the big bubble convex some chose.

 Next the application of oxidizer and let it do its magic.

 Then the polishing. Three different layers, two on the lathe

 I'm super happy with it!

Here are our finished bracelets. All different, of course. I'm at the bottom :)

Tonight my plants were desperate for a drink of water and as I hosed them down I saw a praying mantis. I've only seen a few in my life. While I'm mentioning oddities, there are a slew of dragonflies this year. We never have them in the yard. They are everywhere I go.

Here are a couple of closeups of yesterday's flowers that are opening up :)