Steampunk Jewelry, Part 2

  
My friend Courtney reminded me today that I haven't posted anything new here for almost a month. Mainly, this is because I haven't had any new crafts to post about because I have been working so hard on getting ready for my first show at Soonercon (a comic convention in Oklahoma). I was making pendants (refer back to my first post about this topic) and my life exploded steampunk.


     Everyone in my family kind of jumped on board, from helping me take apart watches to coming up with new things to make steampunk-esque. My grandfather had a huge collection of keys, including some awesome skeleton keys, so those began to feature prominently in my work.

     Today was the first day of the convention and it was an interesting experience (shout out to: the guy who bought my very first piece; the girl who picked out my mother's favorite; and the little girl who loved the shiny, bling-ed out keys- thanks!) I will be putting up a page devoted to my work, so check back later for more on that.


Now, for the craft info (don't have many pictures of the process, sorry):

Materials:

• keys (go with skeleton keys for a more period look)
• various internal parts of watches (clock face, whole mechanisms, gears, + other bits and bobs)
• beads, gems or swarovski crystals , etc.
• jewelry glue
• toothpicks and tweezers
• metal buffer or soft scrub bleach (optional)

Some of the finished keys (my mom is pretty fond of jewels...)

How To:

1. First, we cleaned/sanitized all the keys with bleach. 
2. We buffed some of the keys for a shinier finish using a wire brush and various dremel drill attachments.
3. The fun part was deciding what placement to use for each of the keys. Laying things out and seeing which key shape went well with what combination of crystals and gears. 
4. Next, lay out a tiny well of glue (it dries fast, so don't pour out a ton) and use the toothpick to apply glue to the surface of the key. 
5. Pick up the tiny pieces using tweezers and press them firmly into the key base. 
6. Wait for everything to dry and check for a strong bond.