Tetiana Williams

Tetiana Williams works in Mississippi Mills, Ontario, under the name Copper & Silk Infusion Art. Two crafts sit side by side in what she makes: silk painted by hand, and real leaves, twigs and flowers turned into copper.

Arts Carleton Place, which carries her artist page, writes that she first expressed an artistic interest through the lens of a camera and later studied silk painting in Ukraine. She kept painting on silk after arriving in Canada, and the hobby grew into her passion. Electroforming came later — making jewellery out of elements found in nature.

Electroforming is slow work. She collects fallen leaves, twigs, flowers and ethically sourced insects, and copper is deposited on them until the object stands in metal with every vein and contour still readable. Some pieces are finished with a patina — a rich antique tone on an oak leaf, a vivid verdigris on a maple leaf carrying a wasp — then sealed with a jewellery-grade lacquer so the surface does not oxidise.

Her Gallery Room at Art in the Neighbourhood shows six pieces: the Apple Branch and Linden Lace candleholders, the Dipladenia Muse brooch, and the Oak Leaf Symphony, Wasp on Maple Leaf and Whispering Wings pendants. Linden Lace began as a weathered leaf found in its lace-like state, and the piece keeps that decay intact. Nothing repeats, because no two leaves are alike.

In her own words on the gallery page: “I love preserving the fragile beauty of nature by transforming real leaves and flowers into copper art.” Arts Carleton Place records that she has taken part in craft shows through Eastern and Central Ontario.