Well...

I am not going to start with how sorry I am that I am a hopeless blogger! Let's just put the past behind us again!

This weekend I finished up some pocketwatch necklaces I was working on. I love every part of making these. It starts with the hunt. I scour E-Bay for the best prices and spend my late evenings trying to get a "deal". I usually end up with a few good pieces and a lot of junk. But what's wrong with junk? I take apart the watches and it gives me lots of little gears and doodads to use, which I did in some of these watches. At the moment when I get my srcewdriver just under the lip of the rim it POPS, the overwound spring zips and squeals and I jump and a little noise escapes me! It's always a surprise. Some of those old watches just do not want to release. I soak them in vinegar for a couple of days. That seems to help them if they are really disgusting. Some of them have been left in a barn or somewhere for the last hundred years! When the package comes in the mail I am so thrilled until a foul odor wafts up and gags me! SO if anyone thinks these aren't worth the meager price I have placed on them, just remember the suffering I went through.

Then comes the process of collecting all the things to decorate with. I am always amazed at how much little stuff I have! I landed about a hundred of those tiny frozen Charlottes that were buried in the dirt at the German doll factory. They are perfect and I have been making a lot of jewelry out of them. The lifesize eyeball was a gift from my artist friend, John Dyer. (Check him out sometime on the Meibohm's Art Gallery site.) Note: He is the best painter in the world and curiously weird to boot! What could be better? Anyways, I gather all my junk and start composing. I use Aves Apoxy Sculpt to fix it all together, then wait for it to harden.

Then comes the painting. This is where it really comes to life! Many thanks to Michael DeMeng for revealing to me that paint, just simple paint could transform a piece. I always used to try  to use inks or stains or complicated patinas, but now I just paint it! Go figure! It's fun to play with different combinations of paint, even though I don't name them like he does (or remember them).

A coat of varnish, a chain, and waalaa, finished. Photos, post, and sit back. Oh yeah, find buyers (kind of have that under control)

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