Family Heirloom, Preserved

I am ready to share pictures of my recent work, just in time for Valentine's Day. I made this set of earrings and a pendant for my neighbor. She had an old watch, a family heirloom, which did not work anymore. I took it apart and made it into this pendant. I was even able to preserve the back of the old watch (with initials P.P.) by attaching it to the back of the pendant. The pendant is made from brown polymer clay. One side of it has the watch parts and the other is decorated with crackled gold metal leaf. The pendant is covered with clear resin to create a smooth, glass-like surface. The matching earrings are adorned with fresh-water pearls.

Steampunk Butterfly Tutorial

My new tutorial is now available! Find it on my web site: http://www.eugenascreations.com/

What's Steampunk? In short, it is a fiction genre that celebrates steam power and machines. Think of Jules Verne and James Blaylock. This style is continued in visual arts and even music. For more information - Google.

In this tutorial, I explain how to use polymer clay, resin, pre-fabricated filigree, and (the most fun!) parts from an old mechanical watch to create a unique pendant. As always, this tutorial teaches a technique using a project as an example. This means that if you follow the tutorial step by step exactly as it is written, you will end up with a pendant very similar to the one shown here, but you will also master a new technique that can be applied to many more projects of you own. That is when the true creativity begins.

Steampunk Twist

I am having so much fun playing with the old watches! It 's like a treasure hunt – all these little parts somehow have been put together in some complicated and beautiful pattern, and discovering them is amazingly exciting. I re-arrange them to make pendants like the one pictured here. I've seen quite a few necklaces, earrings, and rings with the whole watch movements. My pendants are different, because they show off separate parts and those parts are covered with multiple layers of resin to make the whole pendant smooth like glass.

I have a couple more pendants in my Etsy shop, and I am working on a tutorial, which I am hoping to finish within a week or two.