The ever changing Metal Mandala

I call these jewels mandalas, most are set with Chinese fresh water pearls in the center but sometimes I use agate, mother of pearl or gold domes. This metal series has been developing for 30 plus years, although the ones pictured here were all created during the last 10 or 12 years. Before and after I started making jewelry I was attracted to the mandala form and drew and painted in this mode including once a painted one ten feet in diameter on the side of a store in Ventura about 1970.
The metal ones are composed of multi metal layers, the top layer pierced with a thin jewelers saw blade in a variety of patterns and the back layer(s) textured by stamping or roller printing. When the back layer is copper, it is usually colored by heat oxidation with a torch. layers are joined together with rivets that I make out of wire. The design process starts by dividing a circle into equal segments, most commonly eight, but sometime 6, 5, 4 or 3 and then creating a design motif that repeats in each of the sections. I plan to divide a circle into 7 segments this year to see what kind of design that might lead to. These jewels can all be worn as either pins or pendants and although in this illustration they all look the same size, they actually vary in diameter from 1 1/4 inches to 2 1/2 plus inches. I normally only make one at a time and have rarely had more than one in my case at any given showing. These days I'm tending to make ones of smaller scale because the bigger ones are not selling.