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The piece below and many of her happy cousins can be viewed in finished splendor over at my website as of right now...
Have a look in the New Work section, as well as the Sale section (in Neckpieces and Brooches), for different pieces. Do drop me a line and let me know what you think!
Keith
The following sequence of images will bring you on a tour through the making of my newest neckpiece, entitled "REPETITION / CHANGE." The beauty shots of the piece will be posted on my website in the coming day or two. Hope you enjoy.
The object of my affection: Angering classic cars buffs the world over, I prepare to gut an early 20th-century automobile radiator gauge
The double-sided glass bezels are hard to resist
The thermometer, lodged firmly in place by century-old ossified rubber
Intact - phew - and put aside to be used some other day
As it's quite a heavy hunk of metal, I give it some consideration, trying to see what it can live without
Testing out the new cordless Sawz-All (Pocket Review: It rocks)
Sawn, and
on to the interior...
Sawing out needless weight
Tough work.
Too tough. No worries, panic averted as I realize the piece will be held together with screws on both sides, remember?
Nut, shaped and tightened, so I can hang an element from below
Miles & Audrey on the studio steps, making sure dad's doing it right
Beautiful Victorian key, ready to be sacrificed for Art
Keys soldered square brass wire
Balling up some copper wire
Copper wires run through the brass and
forged
then folded down into hooks, small brass wire being threaded through
finishing the wire outer structure
and the main housing ready to be occupied.
Money well-spent in Port Gamble, Washington
Beheading the subject - a steel-point engraving from 1845
Mid-bling: tiny silver balls dropped into the starfish legs, to be finished with a tiny opal in the mouth
Starfish set, and the resin being colored
Beautiful little seed 'cups' scavenged in Hall's Gap, Victoria
Filled with pearls
and placed.
As is often the case when trying to seal chambers full of resin, airbibbles appear the next day after it semi-sets. Time to inject resin into the bubbles. Luckily there is a tiny gap between the glass crystal and the metal, or I'd have been out of luck.
Had to make a custom hypodermic out of an insulin syringe and some stainless tubing (the original syringe was too tiny to suck up the viscous resin)
Fixed.
Couldn't resist adding some sailor's touches...
The copper elements of a swivel-connection to go between the pendant and the cord
The assembly riveted to the key and patinated
Choosing lovely little keys to hang the piece from
Riveting key to cord
A lovely old wooden dresser knob to hang underneath
Tapping a thread into the knob
Voiding the warranty on said knob
Drilled out
Sanded and painted.
A miscast glass pebble becomes the best of the bunch for me
The pebble ground down to fit
A beautiful symbol from a 16th-century book to be refracted behind the glass pebble
The chamber gets a resin assembly
The piece is signed (KL •9•), waxed, and readied for
photographing.
Pouring the epoxy resin around the mud-wasp specimen.
Cutting the book leather for the back.
Shape drawn to be cut out...
...and glass chosen to fill the void.
The back before the leather gets attached.
The glass form.
Copper plate etched and about to be patinated.
Readying to attach.
The back leather panel, seen from the inside.
Attached in place - a secure fit.
The object of my affection: Angering classic cars buffs the world over, I prepare to gut an early 20th-century automobile radiator gauge
The double-sided glass bezels are hard to resist
The thermometer, lodged firmly in place by century-old ossified rubber
Intact - phew - and put aside to be used some other day
As it's quite a heavy hunk of metal, I give it some consideration, trying to see what it can live without
Testing out the new cordless Sawz-All (Pocket Review: It rocks)
Sawn, and
on to the interior...
Sawing out needless weight
Tough work.
Too tough. No worries, panic averted as I realize the piece will be held together with screws on both sides, remember?
Nut, shaped and tightened, so I can hang an element from below
Miles & Audrey on the studio steps, making sure dad's doing it right
Beautiful Victorian key, ready to be sacrificed for Art
Keys soldered square brass wire
Balling up some copper wire
Copper wires run through the brass and
forged
then folded down into hooks, small brass wire being threaded through
finishing the wire outer structure
and the main housing ready to be occupied.
Money well-spent in Port Gamble, Washington
Beheading the subject - a steel-point engraving from 1845
Mid-bling: tiny silver balls dropped into the starfish legs, to be finished with a tiny opal in the mouth
Starfish set, and the resin being colored
Beautiful little seed 'cups' scavenged in Hall's Gap, Victoria
Filled with pearls
and placed.
As is often the case when trying to seal chambers full of resin, airbibbles appear the next day after it semi-sets. Time to inject resin into the bubbles. Luckily there is a tiny gap between the glass crystal and the metal, or I'd have been out of luck.
Had to make a custom hypodermic out of an insulin syringe and some stainless tubing (the original syringe was too tiny to suck up the viscous resin)
Fixed.
Couldn't resist adding some sailor's touches...
The copper elements of a swivel-connection to go between the pendant and the cord
The assembly riveted to the key and patinated
Choosing lovely little keys to hang the piece from
Riveting key to cord
A lovely old wooden dresser knob to hang underneath
Tapping a thread into the knob
Voiding the warranty on said knob
Drilled out
Sanded and painted.
A miscast glass pebble becomes the best of the bunch for me
The pebble ground down to fit
A beautiful symbol from a 16th-century book to be refracted behind the glass pebble
The chamber gets a resin assembly
The piece is signed (KL •9•), waxed, and readied for
photographing.
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