TEMPUS FUGIT ~ Time Flies

Recently I finished a project for Amate Studios that really challenged my design skills: cuff links! Of all the jewelry findings I received from Amate, the cuff links seemed to be the ones that didn't cry out for polymer clay and I couldn't think of what to do with them. But as time passed I knew I needed to do something soon. Time! Of course! Time flies by so rapidly these days that I'm always up against a deadline so how can I show this in a piece of jewelry? Watches? Nah, too trite. Ah, broken watches... Steam Punk! I had just bought some Steam Punk bits that were lots of tiny watch pieces and then I had a small brainstorm: a broken watch. But how to show it was from a watch? Since the bezel on these cuff links was so nice and deep I planned on embedding the watch parts in multiple layers of UV resin along with a few hole less beads (micro beads) but what else? Then I remembered a reprint of the first ever Sears & Roebuck catalog published in 1897 which had some great images of old pocket watches with both the face and the inside workings! Eureka! Just what I needed. So, a quick scan and download to my computer, re-size and print. Then a touch of chalk pastels and colored pencils to give the look of age, trim and seal with clear packing tape and into the cuff link they went. Next came a layer of the UV Resin (LOVE that stuff, Lisa!), then I added the watch parts a few at a time in multiple layers of resin. Next was to find some wings...I remembered I had some sterling spacers in the shape of a butterfly and a dragon fly but they were a bit thick so I cut them in half with my wire cutters and added one to each cuff link. Now I had wings to fly my time! A couple more layers of resin to fill and dome the surface and there they were! Tempus Fugit ~ Time Flies!

Tell me what you think of these: old made new again.