Sunday, April 18, 2010

Steampunk here we come!

I just had to make a pair of ear-rings today - and no, I wasn't procrastinating about the Art History essay that was due a few weeks ago ( I was kindly granted an extension but this essay is proving illusive) - more just a need to physically manifest the idea that has been rattling around in my brain taking up space. Truly. I have made them for a young friend and was going for a steampunk look. Strictly speaking, these fall well short of "real"steampunk but I think my friend will like them none the less. The genre is explained here. Sort of. I pulled apart a clock with the intention of using all the nifty cogs but alas - they were all plastic! I have improvised and made my own cog lookalikes from bits and pieces I had. Yay for lateral thinking because today was the day to make these or they may never have materialised!
I used copper and brass that I bashed about a bit and some sterling rings and a wee bit of recycled tray. I don't have any wire at the moment so I cheated and used ready-made hooks. I fashioned the cog-like bits by rivetting some bits together and the ring they hang from was made using a technique I learned from Stephanie Lees' book "Semi-Precious Salvage".
We are mad "Firefly" fans in this household and for some reason I was thinking of Captain Mal when I made these ... that is probably a bit sad for a woman my age (sigh)

I am adding these pics despite their poor quality to try and show the 3 dimensional effect I was trying to create.
Hope you can get the idea from that!
And here is a close-up of my cog look-alike.

4 comments:

Melissa said...

WOW
They look great
M
xxx

Elizabeth said...

Your friend will adore them, they are gorgeous....You are one very clever lady.

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to see them 'in the flesh' badabingbadaboom!
Just gorgeous!! xx Kath.

Ro Bruhn said...

These are fabulous Sue. Have you seen they are calling for entries into the new book '1000 steam punk inspirations', over at SLK's Objects and Elements blog.
I'm sure these would qualify.