This is bougainvillea done in copper repousse. Repousse is an ancient technique for reshaping a flat sheet of metal into a three dimensional relief. I worked from a photo I had taken of a sprig cut from a plant in my father's back yard.

Although I have been doing botanicals in repousse for some time, this is the first one that has overlaps where the metal was stretched far enough for it to be folded over other parts of the design. Several petals do this.With what I learned here, I intend to take taht particular element farther in future pieces.