Leonor is an award-winning jewelry artist who lives in Tucson, Arizona and also maintains a summer studio in Isla Negra, Chile. She has a passion for copper, an important natural resource in both locales. ​In recent years she has focused on making unique jewelry with copper and natural materials found in the Sonoran Desert.

​Her work is a combination of soft and hard. She often combines copper with fine metals such as silver and brass, and then adds turquoise, fresh water pearls, cholla, ironwood, leather, or colorful, handmade fabric and felt beads. The metal itself is often etched with petroglyphs or her own drawings which have been adapted to the etching process.

"Life evolves in much the same way as the jewelry I create is evolving.

When I pick up a piece of copper I see potential. It evokes in me a sense of possibility which begins the unique rendering of what is achievable.

I enjoy the juxtaposition of the hardness of metal with the delicate textures of nature's gifts such as seed pods, wood, or cactus skeletons. Since I live where copper lives in the earth, working with it has become my passion.

​​I find it interesting that for hundreds of years people have worn copper next to their skin. It seems to promote health and ease pain such as arthritis. I like knowing that this metal I love to form into jewelry can also help with the healing process."

~Leonor Pisano