I was having a rough time sleeping one night. I had to get up the next morning for work, and about halfway through my sleep, I felt something crawl across my arm. NOT GOOD. I flipped out, because my single biggest creature fear is spiders, followed closely by snakes. I HATE, and I emphasize HATE them. So I jump out of bed, wake my husband up, and see a huge wolf spider crawling across the bed. Well, needless to say, he was too quick for us, and we lost him, at least, until later that morning. At least, I like to think that it was him.
So, basically, from 2:00 am until 7:30 am, I kept myself awake, because I did not want him crawling back across me again. And what did I do in those 5 1/2 hours? I shopped Etsy, one of the banes of my existence, and the lifeblood as well.In between searches, in my sleepless state, I started to have a vision of a new creation. Vintage inspired, steam-punk style, old fashioned pocket watch necklaces. I quickly was more awake than I had been, and searched feverishly through Etsy, trying to locate what I was looking for. And I found them.
Antique brass and silver, some copper, though I haven't ordered any of those yet, gunmetal, and animal styles. Since owls are my new fad, I found and bout some of those, and they are CUTE!!! I bought the typical pocket watch style with the flip cover, but a skeleton style. Not SKELETON like human skeleton, but skeleton meaning the cover has see-through holes cut into it so you can see the watch face underneath. And I bought what I call Gentleman's Carriage Watches. They are a glass marble watch, very heavy, with the marble on both sides, so you can see the inner workings of the watch, and the glass greatly magnifies the watch face, so the numbers are a little bit bigger. I bought those tentatively, because, while they looked awesome, I wanted to be able to put an image on the backside, and my supplier said that wasn't possible.
I waited anxiously for my order to arrive. And when they did, I was ECSTATIC!!! So far, my absolute favorite is the Gentleman's Carriage Watch, and I was able to put images on the backsides of the watches. I started designing my necklaces around the watches. Initially, my first watch sold to my boss, who wanted one of the owls, so I designed it in her colors, plum and ivory. But I wasn't totally happy with the design of that watch, and I might ask her if I could redesign it, just appease myself. Back to the drawing board.
Since the watches were sort of heavy, I decided on a classic "Y" shape. I started with my second owl watch, and since he was brass, I had the findings to begin work. I created vintage style bead drops, using brass bead cones, brass ball beads, and ivory fire-polished Czech Glass beads. I strung them on in equal measurements, and wire wrapped them, so there wouldn't be any possibility of them falling off, unless in some unforeseen weird circumstance. I finished it off, and looked back, in awe of myself for a moment, and that doesn't always happen. I had created a reproduction watch necklace, and it was AWESOME!!! I have thus been creating more, perfecting my designs, and putting some into the shop where I work. So far, no takers, yet, but I can always drop the price. I want to give it a few weeks, but I have had so many compliments on them, and that strokes my ego to no end :) I'll let you know how it goes :)
Antique brass and silver, some copper, though I haven't ordered any of those yet, gunmetal, and animal styles. Since owls are my new fad, I found and bout some of those, and they are CUTE!!! I bought the typical pocket watch style with the flip cover, but a skeleton style. Not SKELETON like human skeleton, but skeleton meaning the cover has see-through holes cut into it so you can see the watch face underneath. And I bought what I call Gentleman's Carriage Watches. They are a glass marble watch, very heavy, with the marble on both sides, so you can see the inner workings of the watch, and the glass greatly magnifies the watch face, so the numbers are a little bit bigger. I bought those tentatively, because, while they looked awesome, I wanted to be able to put an image on the backside, and my supplier said that wasn't possible.
I waited anxiously for my order to arrive. And when they did, I was ECSTATIC!!! So far, my absolute favorite is the Gentleman's Carriage Watch, and I was able to put images on the backsides of the watches. I started designing my necklaces around the watches. Initially, my first watch sold to my boss, who wanted one of the owls, so I designed it in her colors, plum and ivory. But I wasn't totally happy with the design of that watch, and I might ask her if I could redesign it, just appease myself. Back to the drawing board.
Since the watches were sort of heavy, I decided on a classic "Y" shape. I started with my second owl watch, and since he was brass, I had the findings to begin work. I created vintage style bead drops, using brass bead cones, brass ball beads, and ivory fire-polished Czech Glass beads. I strung them on in equal measurements, and wire wrapped them, so there wouldn't be any possibility of them falling off, unless in some unforeseen weird circumstance. I finished it off, and looked back, in awe of myself for a moment, and that doesn't always happen. I had created a reproduction watch necklace, and it was AWESOME!!! I have thus been creating more, perfecting my designs, and putting some into the shop where I work. So far, no takers, yet, but I can always drop the price. I want to give it a few weeks, but I have had so many compliments on them, and that strokes my ego to no end :) I'll let you know how it goes :)
