Steampunk

My Grandpa was always such a crafty fellow. He could make something out of nothing and loved using found objects (halved walnut shells as scary fingernails on a giant hand, pistaccio shells as weird little singing faces . . .). My favorite of his creations were his watch sculptures. He would take apart watches and use the gears and springs and whatnot to create intricate sculptures of trains, motorcycles, and castles. I was in awe of the detail. (and I wish I had some pics to share!)

When my Grandpa died, he left all of his watches and watch parts to me. They sat in my basement for the longest time. I had no idea what to do with them. Then one day, about 3 months ago, I decided to try my hand at making a watch train. How hard could it be, right? Um, HARD. I tried and tried, to no avail. And it didn't help that I was trying to hold the pieces together using a glue gun (FYI: glue guns = not a good choice for gluing metal!). I was disappointed. I was annoyed. Heck, I was angry! My hubby, not wanting me to be in a fowl mood (probably a good thing - I tend to cuss like a sailor when I'm mad!) suggested we buy some epoxy to try. He also suggested to make something other than a train (since it obviously wasn't working out).
So I started with an owl. Some of the gears reminded me of the eyes of a great horned owl. And he turned out pretty cute! I was digging through the pieces and noticed one reminded me of a hummingbird. So I made one. Another piece looked like a dragon head, a robot, a cat . . . and so started my watch sculpting.
And the epoxy works much better than a glue gun!This is the latest owl I'm working on. You can see others in my etsy store! http://ickydogcreations.etsy.com