MIA one Steampunk Jeweller...

well I been MIA for a while now - not just on the Blog but in life too. Maybe I'm hitting that age where I start to fall apart and then need cyborg parts? ... perhaps not quite yet! Actually its a bunch of kidney related issues but I'm hoping those will pass (ha!) soon.

Anyway, since i've not been feeling well I thought I would do a collage of some of the more recent steampunk jewelry that I've been creating. It's an okay collage - most of the stuff is still up on etsy (http://www.clockworkzero.etsy.com/) right now. A few pieces are going to be up and as of 20 min ago one of them (the flower) is prob going to be sold.

Its been a slow month so far on etsy. amazingly slow. I suspect because all the little things I do to keep it going haven't happened. No real updates, no new work. But now
that I'm feeling a bit better.. its time to get rolling again.

So in the collage starting at the top: Beetle wing necklace, a dragonfly in flight against a large clock gear, one of the cyberpunk Industrial necklaces - this one made from part of a cash register, The Claw (recycled chainsaw blade and a pocket watch piece), lovely unusual patterned brass pocket watch piece with vintage glass drop, a smaller "honeycomb" made from recycled hardware and layers of industrial glue, Vacuum Tube necklace, Dangerous queen's necklace, another vacuum tube necklace but with some longer glass tubes, Pocket Watch Bunny - part of my steampunk Alice series, 3 locket lockets, pretty watch face with brass flowers.

Update: FUNDRAISER for HAITI - Auction piece...

I finally finished and photographed the piece I'd like to present to you, my very tiny audience, up for Auction. 90% of the money raised here will go towards the Red Cross - towards the assistance of those in need after the Haitian earthquake.



First.. a few details about how this will work. The Auction bids close on Sunday January 24th at 9pm Eastern Standard Time. The highest bid wins the Auction. I will pay for the postage to any of the following countries: USA, Canada, UK, Australia, France or Japan. Outside of that we'll have to see ... I know how much it is to send to these countries so that simplifies things for me. The bid winner and I can figure out details if necessary.

Final bid closest to 9pm Eastern Standard time wins. That person paypals me the money. I will take 90% of that and donate it to the Red Cross. I'll make some kind of post / proof of it when I confirm the payment. Should the highest bidder fail to make payment - then it goes to the 2nd highest etc etc. (I reserve the right to tweak this a bit if necessary).

Second: What do you get? See the details below. Paid shipping, a custom designed necklace with a chain, and the knowledge that you are getting something cool AND helping. This piece is named,"Swift Wings to Haiti" - because of the outpouring of prayers and thoughts that have gone to this poor island. As I said, 90% or so will go straight towards the relief efforts.

Third: Where do you make your bids? HERE. On this post. everything should get date / time stamped. Just make a Comment....

UPDATE:

Currently the bidding (just leave a comment in this blog with your bid) is at $40~! Thanks Ninde for starting this auction so strongly.


WHAT CAN YOU DO?
If you don't like it, or don't want to bid, or don't think its a deal, or whatever... no probs. I would ask that you spread the word if you can. That would be great. Maybe someone else You know will like it. Twitter about it. Post about it. Mention it. Hopefully someone will love it enough.

DETAILS About this Creation...
The intaglio was special ordered and is a vintage intaglio that is glass, and was hand painted. I believe it dates from the 1950's. I chose the sailing ship as it is a beautiful piece, hard to find, and appropriate for the island - and all those who are sailing to her rescue. The Compass is sterling silver. It represents the people from around the world who are sending money, prayers and thoughts to Haiti. The wings represent the prayers and hopes, and of course angels too.

The pocket watch base has lovely patterning on it - a star field like design. I've set layers of small gears around the piece - behind and above the compass. There are a few watch jewels as well. The wings are silver plated, and have lovely detail. The pocket watch base, from a swiss pocket watch is on 4cm round - about 1.6 inches. I'm including a nickel-free chain that is 15.5 inches or so long.

Regards to you all, ClockworkZero

FUNDRAISING AUCTION for HAITI

Okay, so those who know me, know I do a few fundraisers. Usually I just donate something that I've made towards events... But organizing an event takes ages. I would really prefer to get some money donated to This time I'll just do the fundraising myself and send the cash to a charity.

I will admit I almost started to cry seeing our Governor General, Michaëlle Jean on TV yesterday. I've always admired the woman. She was born in Haiti, and has an adopted daughter from Haiti as well.

I'm going to start making something Very Special - steampunk jewelry wise - for one item for Auction........... and better get my arse in gear for it. In the meantime I do have a piece I've been working on that is pretty cool. I'll try and put it up tomorrow - get some photos done - complete it.

Right now, for the moment, I'll donate $5.00 out of any sale on etsy. Starting with the one that sold yesterday. :D

Steampunk Fashion Shoot - Auxiliary Magazine February 2010!

Personally, 2009 ended with a whimper and started with a Bang!
I contracted some kind of viral stomach contagion from TheHusband. First I looked after him, and we thought it was food poisoning. No such luck (!?) - since on the 30th I started getting sick. I won't describe it. Far too horrible.

After 3 days in bed though I had to get my shaking, quivering arse over for a photoshoot that prominently featured my jewelry. I was working with Tasha from Pretty Deadly Stylz who asked if I can provide some of the Steampunk Jewelry for the photos. Since I had spent weeks working on things for this shoot - at least 15 pieces - I figured sick or near dead - I better get there. It was also a balmy -25C out. lovely.

Anyway, I arrived at the location - an artist's studio - and the PhotoShoot was InProgress. There were 2 models, 1 Hair Stylist, 2 Make Up Artists (MUA's), the Photographer, and Tasha - The Stylist. A Wardrobe had been up - Racks of clothes - tables of make-stuff, a small shoe store had been gutted to provide shoes, and of course Lights, Bounces and Set.

Holy Crap, I thought, wtf am I doing here??? Me. artist/jewelry-maker, normal person.
I had brought the cases of jewelry and a bunch of tools to lengthen/shorten/adjust and create-on-the-spot work. Good thing too since I ended up doing a lot of that for the next several hours.

Evidently the photos look Fantastic. We'll find out in February when Auxiliary Magazine puts out the issue. I can't wait!

TIPS for ETS Sellers #2: Whats in a Tag - ETSY Tagging Tips

Last night at the Speakeasy Craft show in Toronto I started talking to someone about the tags they use on Etsy. I'm fairly certain that this would apply though to many, many other sites perhaps like artfire.

Most people think of tags as descriptions - and in Etsy's case they have some general rules around tagging. Certainly the right tags will get your product found - when you search for something on etsy after all you will notice the various categories. Mis-tagging can get you in trouble sometimes... listing something as vintage when it isn't... but general mistagging can just get your work buried.

If you ever browse the categories (and really - you should! Not only is it a good way to stumble over a great gift but its a great way to see how others are tagging their items) sometimes you'll find some piece of jewelry (or whatever) that is completely mis-tagged. Perhaps it is a newly created necklace that has somehow ended up in the "Supplies" category. These mistakes often go unnoticed by the seller - and what will happen is that your work will be buried in the zillions of supplies.

General rules - lets call these the Basics:

1. CATEGORIES - not all my work goes into the Geekery Category though certainly some of it does. The JEWELRY section is hundreds of pages deep but if that's where your item goes... thats where it should be.

2. SPELLING: is of course critical. One thing to consider though is that American vs British spellings can make it difficult to find some items. Since the majority of buyers are from the USA - consider your options carefully and I would suggest that if the majority of your customers are from the USA - then certainly appeal to them.

3. APPROPRIATE: its really critical that the tag you use is appropriate. You do yourself no favors by marking something with an inappropriate tag. No one wants to look for shoes and find your piece of jewelry made with a doll that happens to be wearing shoes. They won't click on it - and you have wasted one of your Limited number of tags. When I search for supplies it irks the crap out of me to search for steampunk and end up with teddy bear material. My reaction is WTF followed by annoyance. I immediately know someone is trying to take advantage of the popularity of steampunk............. or they just don't know what they are doing. I will NOT buy from someone who can't be bothered to find out about Steampunk Jewelry, or what is a good tag to use for their product.

There are only 14 tags on etsy so use them wisely!


TIP:
Create a list of possible TAGS. Have a close look at what other people are using for their tags - it might not be the best choice but when you are trying to brainstorm some appropriate tags it can be easy to overlook some.


Now to the nitty-gritty of your Tags...

Tags help the buyers find your work, but with 45,000 tennis bracelets what will help them find you???

This is where a little site called CRAFTWEASEL will really come in handy. Here's the description of their Tag Finder tool: "Tag finder helps you choose the best set of tags for your items" - and pretty much it does what it says.

So lets have a look how this works - and I can give you an example. Since I'm fairly familiar with the term Steampunk... lets go with another tag that sometimes applies to my jewelry: GOTHIC.

Craftweasel tells me were 1100 items or so listed with this term - and the prices - the Mean/Median price. Right away I can see that most of my items will be out of the Mean And the Median price range. (google up the terms for an explanation). Immediately I know that this might not be a good tag for my products. Why? Because my price range is higher so if someone searches and lists "low to high" price my work will be buried...
Does this mean I should not use the tag "gothic"? Not necessarily... so lets look a bit deeper into the stats provided.

Personally the 2nd chart I look at is the graph: "Graph of related tags with most views/day"
Under the term "gothic" I find that jewelry is very low in this list - clothing related items being HIGH. It would be a great term if I made gothic clothing. Alas, its already dropping in my list of Possible tags.

Is that it? No.. Dig around look at the "RELATED TAGS". This is actually a fantastic bit of information. I always sort it by "Average Views per Day". What are the top few average views that are related to what YOU sell? Are any of those tags related to what you sell? What is the average price? Is there any YOU can use...

TIP:
keep building your list of the best tags for your work you can find. It is how people FIND you on etsy. Check back periodically and see what getting more hits using CraftWeasel. Ask some friends - "if you were looking on google what terms would you use to find my work?".

And one final tip..........
every so often tag your shop name (or your personal name) in with the tags. You might also list your city or town. Not everyone knows to use the "shop local" option - and that only shows 100 shops anyway - so put your city down as a tag... not on every item but at least on one or two in your shop.

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Did you find anything interesting in this post? Please let me know!

some Steampunk Earrings...

I don't make a lot of earrings. No idea why - probably because they are a bit of a PITA for me personally. Or maybe it was the trauma of all the ugly earrings I wore back in the late 80s? hm. So when I make earrings I really try and come up with something pretty, and unusual.

Anyway, one of my most popular designs are simple and elegant. They are the ones I call my "Silver and Black Star earrings". I have had more compliments on these ones then just about anything else. They are, for me "steampunk earrings" but... I suspect they are just the perfect combination of elegant and classic. Maybe one day I'll make a few variations but right now they are my fav. The black star-gear washers are a lovely matte black - which works well against the shiny silver discs. I love working with sterling silver - but I just wish I could afford to use more :)

The next pair of "steampunk earrings" are really much more (IMHO) Cyberpunk. I often wonder if cyberpunk though is as popular as steampunk. I love it. That modernistic slick look, which is to me much more MATRIX-BLADERUNNER oriented then the gear-driven, brass and watchparts look of the steampunk jewelry. This pair of earrings will be quite limited in their run. Alas! sigh. I think they are very difficult to find - the main component being the Magnetic Switches - which are Just Super cool.

I'll have to dig up some other photos somewhere of some of my other earrings. :)

Tips for Esty Sellers - Successful Marketing Ideas - part 1 of ?

LAUNCHING, RUNNING AND MARKETING A SUCCESSFUL ETSY STORE

Alrighty! I don't have the biggest esty store, nor the most sales, nor am I the premier of steampunk jewelry designers. (heh). But I did 8 years of web-hosting server-side support for UUNet/worldcom/mci/verizon - and a lot of that involved Stats. And sites. And marketing. So I picked up a few things, and spent a lot of hours talking to web-designers and marketers. Maybe You can find a few tips here in this article about how to become a bit more successful - or at least give it a try! :D As a person who's worked for a company more than some change their socks, I've seen Names come and Go..... so...


MACRO TIP #1: WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Have you googled your personal name lately? What kind of results do you get?
Are there 10,000 similar names, or just a few pages?

One of the most important things you can do when you are choosing a shop name is to come up with something memorable - and unique. If you have gone by a standard default *myname1234* or something along the lines of DebbieDoesEarrings - chances are you might be doing your shop a disservice. Someone will find your shop - but will they remember it two weeks from now? Or will they think, "hmm.. debbie. earrings." and use that as a search and get 5 million pages - with your shop name buried somewhere 108 pages into the results?

You want something unique - and perhaps reflective of what you do. I chose clockwork = because its memorable and reflects the materials. Zero was my old Nickname. Google up "clockworkZero" and you'll notice the first 10 pages or so all link back to me - and thus to etsy. When I first started out all the results led to someone else who had a similar name who has now vanished under my tagging.

Is it too late to rebrand? Not really. If you realize your old name was/is a poor choice - there's a few things to do. Contact your old customers and let them know you've changed your shop name - use it as an opportunity to create hype! "I'm relaunching - just an FYI! Come see what is new!" etc. It gives you a great excuse to send a simple email to friends, family and customers - without banging them on the head begging for sales.

Include your old shop name in your etsy tags for a while - this will give people the chance to search and find you - so add your OLD name to all your current listings...

BUT My cards .... My Marketing ! All the time/money/ideas I've already put into Debbie74832x!
Ask some tough questions: 1. is it working? 2. can it work better? If someone doesn't have your business card In Their Hand - do they remember you?
Luckily you can still have your old shop - BUT - redirect the customers over to your New Shop Name! Use up those business cards (though personally, I've never minded someone crossing out old info - for enviromental reasons - and printing in the new name/tel #).


MICRO TIPS:
1. Add your shop name to you signature as well - everywhere you can.
2. Add your shop name to your tags on etsy. It doesn't have to be in every listing but put it in a few. People don't often realize when they go to etsy that they need to define their searches by shop name.
3. Use your old name in tags in your blogs etc. Some places will allow name changes but you might need to pay a fee. It can be worth it. If they can't do it ... start planning the name change and announce it where ever you can. "I'm moving my blog to..."

Brainstorm with friends or hold a contest for a new name. Create hype. Get excited about your relaunch and people will get excited with you.


IS IT WORKING?
How do you check to see if it is working? Obsessively google your name?
Too much work. You might do it for a few days but 3 weeks into it you will forget.
There is an easy solution: Google gives you tools.

1. STATS. If you haven't set up stats on your esty page.. hie thee hence and find out how. There is a ton of info on the etsy forums. Stats are your friends. View are lovely - but 80% of visitors will only look at your main page you need to know if your Old name and New name is working. Stats will be a critical critical ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY tool. kinda like fingers. really.

2. ALERTS. Every time someone mentions ClockworkZero and the word Steampunk (and a few other things) I get an email from google. I want to know who mentions me, why, where and when. Its a great tool to see how often your current name is getting mentioned. When you've rebranded with your new shiny name... see the difference. Set up your own google alerts here: http://www.google.com/alerts and then see what happens.


And if you are Debbie74832x - you can rebrand. DebbieDoesEarrings is currently available. ;)

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And do let me know what you think about this article. Want more tips? should i bother?

Steampunk Jewelry Explosion... the Aftermath!

holy crow. I've managed to complete more new pieces of jewelry this past 2 weeks than I have in months. Most of it is a steampunked style of jewelry - pocket watch pieces, gears etc. And of course a few pieces of "cyberpunk jewelry".

With the weather halfway decent I could finally take some photos. Thats the problem with a Natural Light obsession. Cloudy dark days don't do it for me. Bright sun also has its own problems. Today looks like another good day - bright and flat skys.

What does this all mean? Basically I've been working like a fiend to get new designs up to Etsy. I do not know if the Shopping Holiday craze has decended or the sporadic marketing attempts I've been doing.

In the past week I've almost had 30 items up on etsy. For me that is a HUGE number. I custom make all my designs... so its just me sitting there in my little crowded room, trying not to drop tiny gears on the floor where they'll get lost in the cracks. This should be easy but it isn't. :D I work a few hours every day for my brother - doing that driveway thing - but when its done - in theory I've got a few hours to make some steampunk earrings, some necklaces and work on some weirdo sculptures.

In reality:
5 hrs for my brother: 9-2pm. or so
1 hr for: lunch, minor cleaning: 30 min. shower, dressing, more minor cleaning: 30.

Suddenly it will be 3pm.. emails. Posting stuff. Shopping. Making dinner.
Wait! the light is great.. take those photos!
Wait, another email from someone re: steampunk jewelry!
Wait.. wait.. wait..

Next thing I know it will be 5:30 and I've CREATED NOTHING... but dinner.

So to get 28 pieces of jewelry up on etsy is an accomplishment. I don't know how other people manage to list 50 or 100 or 200 things. omg. They prob work full time at it. Or have a co-op or something. Listing 28 pieces is for me an EXPLOSION of jewelry.

But now .. I've had sales. The last 2 weeks have been almost as busy for my store as the time that I had the article about my work and etsy in WIRED Magazine. I'm tripping over myself to make sure the work gets sent out promptly and well packaged. and now i've gotta plan for 3 craft shows in Dec!

rains it pours. make hay while the sunshines. It will likely be very quiet in January!

Steampunk Jewelry: Insect mania... :D

So a few days ago I said I'd post some photos up. So far I've been slacking. Actually I've been painfully busy. There was the most fantastic party this weekend - great people and music - and OMG models. Models wearing my jewelry. it was an EVENT! :D

anyway, it seems of late I've got a lot of insects around my etsy shop. I love bugs, beetles, bees and spiders. Suddenly I realize I've got a LOT of steampunk insect themes. Maybe there is an entomologist hidden in my soul yearing to create? I would love to study insects but I think I'll have to beg off for a few years while I'm fixated on the steampunk jewelry. So, here's a few of my steampunk insect themed jewelry. Maybe I have the same facination with insects that the Victorian's had? To be honest they make me jump but I do like them.

So Above in this post: Beetle Wing Necklace: Made from real insect wings :) Scary but true - they are this incredible chrome green colour.

Image 2: this fantastic Steampunk Bee necklace. Not the best photo I know... there are more photos on my
http://www.clockworkzero.etsy.com/ - this is a really elegant creation. I searched for months to find matching small gears for this piece - they flank the wings and there are matching watch gears too. The only little element that is not an exact match is the fact that one side has a brass coloured gear while the other is silver. Oh well. :D I could have removed them but then it would lose such a nice element of this piece. More photos of it and a longer description are over on my little site.

Then we have another bee. this is much more "fun" then the queen bee here - an interesting combination of a new "vintage" designed pressing and a light bulb! :D

This piece was a nightmare to photograph. The bulb was so difficult to get right and the light has been terrible of late.

It came out fairly well but looks much better in person. Thebrass gear in the centre is really quite fantastic. I wrote a bit about it... Its called (i feel appropriately): The Mystery of Bees

Now lets see what else I've got up on etsy that will go into this post.
Basically this was the piece that started the "Clockwork Insect" post.... I finally finished it last week and got some time to take photos. I'm so pleased with it. It is just FANTASTIC really... I Love it. Sure someone else will love it too... but I just hope whomever buys it will like it as much as me. lol. Does anyone else have that problem?

I photographed it with natural light but had to remove a lot of colour from the wood in this shot via photoshop. The wings reflected all the colour... you can still see a bit of warmth to it.

There is a great description of this unique piece of steampunk jewelry... while its still for sale. I am suspecting someone will buy it. Wouldn't it be great against black? Stunning!

And you know..
just to through a Monkey into the mix...
I'll be putting up my Monkey soon to my etsy site. Sort of a monkey wrench into the works of this post ;)

Before and After Photos - taking good photos for Etsy

So I have to admit I did a long stint helping review work for Stock photography - in a now sadly defunct site. It was a real eye opener. After you have seen 300 photos of a bunch of carrots your eyes glaze over... and then some clever bugger comes along and sends a photo of a bunch of carrots and you say, OMFG look at those carrots!!!

That's the secret of a good photo. I'm not even close to achieving that.. but I learned a lot of tricks Even when i take a great and interesting photo - I still get emails from customers saying: Oh is so much better in Real life!

I try not to spend too much time ditzing around with photos. If I spend 4 hours playing with photos - and i still pay myself - my jewelry would be Much More Expensive. And to be honest I feel its not fair. A customer isn't buying a photo. So I try and limit my "ditzing around time" to about 30 min. Less if I can. Usually I have 2 shots I might spend more time with. As well I try and use all 5 photos. Photos help sell the work.

After having sold nearly 140+ pieces - this equals about 700 photos just to etsy. Thats about 350 hours of photo time. If I was working a 40 hour week that would be over 8 wks. 2 months of work. And that won't count all the didn't-make-it photos. The ones with the hairs and dust and omg-is-that-a-fly?? on the shots.

You really want to get as close to a good photo right from the start. As important as it is to take a good photo there are a few BASICS. This little article won't help much for someone who has no idea about photography. You'll have to check some other sites to help with that.

BASIC THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN TAKING YOUR PHOTOS FOR ETSY:

• 1. Exposure. If your photo is over-exposed there is not a lot you can do to correct it if all the highlights are blown out. For me personally its easier to correct under-exposure. The more over-exposed the photo is the harder it gets to correct.
• 2. Centered - for Etsy and similar sites its really vital that your product is centered. Oh sure it can be artistically placed to one side. It can come at a slant. But if you are cutting off a section of your work or say the really pretty beads aren't show then your customer won't see them. You've got just a few chances to grab their attention - so if part of your photo is missing - chances are good they won't click to find it.
• 3. Large as Possible - You want to fill up at least one of your photos with the product. You might not get in all of it - but get the bulk of whatever it is - in the center and Large!
• 4. Focus. - in focus not blurry. Did you use a tripod?
• 5. Minimal Shadows - yes. sure daylight is great - but direct sunlight causes shadows. Shadows create distortion. In the tiny thumbnails people review the shadows will look like part of your work. Use a bounce. (another photo term for you to look up). A bounce will help minimize the darkness. I have used: pie plates, pot lids, pieces of paper - as well as a store-bought Bounce. The paper works fine.
• 6. WHITE. Anything in your photo that is white should be white. Are your whites white? If your white beads look GRAY or Yellow.. you need to get a photoshop-type program and adjust them. This is critical. If your customer thinks the beads are yellow and gets white beads they won't be pleased. I won't click on any photo of anything where the product looks gray. Brighten it up.
• 7. Straight... this depends on the shot but a good example is the huge number of shots we use to reject because the horizon was crooked. I like things that are straight in the photo - especially if I suspect the person was trying to make it straight.
• 8. Background. I prefer neutral backgrounds. Not too fancy. If i have to spend 40 minutes dicking around with "composing a background" - say one of lace and a pretty book etc. That is 40 minutes I could spend writing, making new jewelry, sleeping. Because these are product shots you want a good, interesting background - but not one that distracts from your work. As well if I create a photo with a book, some lace, pretty flowers - I will make sure I use that in several product shots. But here's the catch - I don't want all my pieces to have the same look. Thats why I will often use layers.

EXAMPLE -- I took this yesterday. To be honest I wasn't in the mood for taking photos, so they are kind of not my best shots. Perfect for this post though...

BEFORE:
1. underexposed. I was being lazy and didn't set up a tripod. Hand-held at 1/30 F2.8 ISO50

2. crooked - I should have spent a bit more time laying it out. sigh.

3. strong shadows. Not terrible - but I didn't use a bounce - see above: lazy. grey.

4. bland background - bland but one of my fav's. it has a lot of black spots but I knew i'd be correcting and adding in a layer.


AFTER: time - 22 min

1. exposure fixed. used - brightness & contrast.

2. straightened (still not perfect but not bad. It is straight and cropped square. My only nitpick would be that the chain is more exposed on the left. shrug).

3. shadows minimized. Cloned out most of the strong ones and dodge out others.

4. background was okay but I added a layer of texture. I did this because I use that textured paper a lot and want something different. Plus - this is a "mechanical" piece. The original background was subtle and organic. I wanted something a bit more textured. In a larger version - clickclick on it - the On-Off switch looks 3d. It does stand a bit forward of the chain so thats okay.

5. cropped - this will be the main photo in when I upload the photo. I look at the photos reduced to 30%. If they look interesting when they are tiny .. thats great. Sites like etsy want squares. Since I was a bit lazy I added some of the background to the right side of the photo. Really I should add a bit more to the bottom so it is centered - but I've hit my 20 min time limit. This will be the main photo in the Etsy upload.

one thing I did that isn't the best is along the left side of the switch it is a wee bit blurry. Thats an editing issue I will correct. later. maybe. but because there will be 4 other photos I won't worry too much. This recycled necklace is made out of different electronic elements. Steampunk jewelry 0r cyberpunk jewelry or maybe just some real geek jewelry. And yeah, the switch does work. :D

Do let me know if you liked this article!

Cheers
Zero

jewel beetle wings and other steampunk things

I spent a part of yesterday drilling out beelte wings. They really look fantastic. Plus.. i love drilling things - funny but true. I even made myself a version of this necklace ::GASP:: = something I rarely do.


The colours are really stunning. I never thought I would wear chrome green.. lol. its GREEN but how amazing really. Depending on the light there is hints of yellow as well as hints of an incredible blue.

I have been really busy this weekend. I even got a fanpage up on Facebook - shocking but true! so far a few of my friends/ ex-coworkers have joined which is kind of fun.

Steampunk Clockwork Jewelry - Insects & Bugs

I have been spending hours working on Clockwork Jewel Beetles and its driving me crazy! LoL. Seriously - there is something about hunching over bits of watches and gears and beetle wings...

yes beetle wings!
Ages ago I bought some Jewel Beetle wings - which is kind of gross - but still very very cool. They've been used for hundreds of years to make jewelry and in ... embroidery. They are this insanely beautiful chrome-green colour, and they are hard as heck too. I actually have to drill through them.

See, this is how the crazieness begins. Hunching over beetle wings til my shoulders creak with tension... taking it apart no less than 15 times. Drilling holes (in wings!) - finding out that for some reason the glues I thought would work - CHANGE THE COLOUR! eeek! buying the old glue - in general I use only a tiny amount of glue anyway on the wings --- after all who would want to cover up that gorgeous green!

Anyway, I keep getting New Ideas as I was making them. There will be 2.... One will be a commission and because I really want these things to come out perfectly, there was nothing to do but take them apart and redrill wings, tinker and tailor and redo them.

One clockwork beetle will go for sale on www.clockworkzero.etsy.com and one is a commission. I was contacted by someone who wanted me to make something like the one that sold (pictured above). Of course............. I can't just duplicate it (even if that were possible). Nope. Gotta improve on the design... gotta take it apart. Gotta try 12 different "tails".

In the end I hope I'll make $0.36 cents an hour. ;) And as I sit here writing - I'm thinking I could make another one. .

yup. there's someone crazy living in this house.

it must be The Cat.

Steampunk book coverings - Works in Progress

Well, went over to my friend's place yesterday to "sew" the book covering for the Simon and Schuster commission for Scott Westerfeld's new book, Leviathan

I've chosen two materials - and likely will go with the first one... Its a nice faux-suede, a bit heavier than the other colour. There's a camel-brown (not really beige - but sorta!) and a green. The green - sort of an olive military green - is quite nice but a bit lighter. I had cut the patterns out - and drawn lines where I needed to sew.... but since i've no machine - I had to go to my friend's place to do it.

Of course going to a friend's place means coffee, lunch and more coffee. We're both photographers so I spent time reviewing her latest work, giving opinions on her jewelry designs (great idea but it will be tricky!) - and talking.

We finally got around to sewing around 4pm. The first, lighter material - was easy. The second one (camel colour) was ................ well. Looks like i need to learn to mark patterns better. After 2 shots we had it done.

I'm a bit nervous. The book covers are pretty exact. Its what they wanted - as far as I can tell. And I detest the idea of them being floppy. So they are snug. How many books will they actually fit? No idea. In my mind they likely won't be used all over the place. Come on, if you won a prize that is covered with silver and gears - how often would you tote it around? Maybe a few times - to show off? How many times would you put in other books? Maybe once or twice.

I think this will look so fantastic that someone will just simply leave it on Leviathan and adore it that way :D

Anyway, the covers got sewn. Now comes the FUN part! For me sewing is Not Fun. but anyway.... i'll be laying out some ideas and sending it to the people at Simon & Shulster Canada and seeing what they think. If it all looks good............. then away I go!

Getting Glued - or why Epoxy is just like Baking

Oh boy! I've just received some DiamondGlaze and it looks goooooood...
I suspect - should all go well today - I make actually start making some new steampunk jewelry.

I'm also going to be testing out some new glues. It looks warm enough to open the windows -- because I certainly don't want lung damage. One of the test glues will be the e6000 product - which looks good in theory though - holy crap it has a number of warnings on it. hm. I'm always reluctant to use things that can end up getting absorbed into the skin.. and you know - cause some weird long term effects.

Anyone want to talk about glue? lol. Its def one of my fav subjects. Getting one thing to stick to another. I've really no great luck on soldering to be honest. Mostly due to the range of materials I use. Soldering steel? arg. soldering copper to brass, brass to steel, steel to aluminum, ... i seriously get nightmares.

Unlike my Dad - who has a lifetime of luck and skill - I just am not a fan of epoxies. Nothing wrong with a good old epoxy. Really expoxies - the 2 part kind - rule the stars. Unfortunately epoxies and I aren't the best of buddies. I dunno. I mix well. Really I do. I suspect it is the measuring. Maybe what I should do is load up 2 syringes with hardner and glue and then squeeze out exactly the correct amount.

I think using epoxies is much baking. Seriously... I'm a cook. I can't bake. Oh sure, once ever 5 years I will bake. In fact I baked up some awesome banana bread last week. But really all that ... measuring. it drives me crazy. 1/4 of a teaspoon? Are you kidding me? What happens if i am making a half batch? I then either wing it or google up "whats a half of a quarter of a teaspoon?".

Evidently my poor broken brain agrees. Measuring epoxy is Just Like Baking. I end up with too much glue or too much hardner, or break the not-to-be-broken rule of "Mix Yer Epoxy for One Solid Minute or Else".

I suspect I don't have the attention span of 60 seconds. sure thing I can spend 45 minutes taking apart a piece of machine, or 2 hrs picking through gears the size of a 1yr old's little toenail, but can i sit there mixing Epoxy for 60 seconds? seems not.

To be fair though - there are some epoxies I've had luck with. Just not a consistant result. I'm going to try out this stuff and will let you all know.

so any one out there love a glue?

ClockworkZero out :)

Steampunk Jewelry on WIRED Magazine - Etsy, Technology & ClockworkZero's steampunk jewelry

So there's this Geek Magazine i've read for the last decade: WIRED has a very positive article on ETSY. For all you etsy people out there - do take a look. Share it around - its nice to have some super positive ETSY articles - and WIRED is so well read. Consider yourselves as part of the revolution!

Clive Thompson who wrote the article bought one of my steampunk/cyberpunk vacuum tubes last year. Although I'd read his stuff for years I didn't know he was The Clive Thompson. Months and months later he contacted me and said he'd like to mention my work in an article. I was thrilled - but thought it would be a lot less - something minor - and he said in April maybe.
Except it is NOW - LOL omgbbqwtfomg I've had a few sales.. and so much positive little emails from strangers. It's been great. Now i've grabbed somehow a little bit of web fame.

If anyone here DIGGs stuff or Stumbles - can you do me a fav and stumble/digg the article? please? pretty please? shugar?

So chances are good .. i'm quitting my day job.
what do you think of that?! craaaaaaaaazy

Time Crunches a Steampunk Jeweler's Brain

Finally! an update.. but not a huge one. Time crunches my brain, but I'm planning on changing that. Although I've been working on a time traveller device that would allow me to actually go back to the days when i had more time to make jewelry, the device is sadly missing something vital. All it does is just sit there! ;)

So I'm thinking of quitting my day job. The one that pays the rent and bills, and making this a full(er) time venture. its madness. The economy sucks. The sales are a bit slow. but my well paying job... sucks. i get home so depressed and sad, usually with a headache. Sometimes with a migraine.

Between my husband and I we will... be okay if i quit. They won't give me a leave and there are no other positions in the company now. They are asking us to work longer hours (without pay), dress up in Business clothes (no idea why), do more and more. The end result is some hard misery.

So although it seems madness, I told my supervisor this week I'm going to leave the job in April. I'll be doing some hours for my brother, helping people set up web stats (something i'm really good at), and basically... making steampunk jewelry. crazy but true.In other news!

I finally finished my Steampunk Bee design, and I'm really happy with the elements. My husband suggested the price, but I think its a bit too high. I'll be eventually changing it a bit to something slightly more affordable I hope. I love bees........... i should do more bees! And i will too.

So here's the photo. Let me know what you think. There's a few more photos up on etsy - my clockworkzero.etsy site: steampunk bee



The silver bee has been adorned with some simple gears taken from a vintage watch. She is connected to these absolutely gorgeous pocket watch pieces by faceted iolite set into sterling silver. Iolite is a pretty stone - a blue grey colour. I've also added some tiny iolite beads in between the links.

Now the pocket watch pieces are just incredible. It took a long time to find a nice pair that both had some damaskeening (that is the patterning in the metal) and the elaborate engraving. They aren't quite a matched set - since the engraving is a bit different - but they are almost a perfect match in size. Do have a look at the close ups I've provided - since they really show off the fine quality. As you can see these pocketwatch pieces come from Waltham pocketwatches. Based on a guesstimate and a comment from the watch repairman that I got the orignal watches from they were made around 1900-1920 or so.

Steampunk in Toronto!

wow, a long time since i have been here.. i'll be better at posting in 2009. most of my posts go up to my livejournal. Anyway...t hings are going like crazy in the Steampunk Jewelry department. I'm really excited to see how Toronto is growing into loving Steampunk. Yay Toronto :D

I spent the holidays working on some new designs and finishing some special projects.One of the nice things that happened was that my jewelry got used in a photo shoot. I had no idea what to expect though, so it was rather difficult to get all excited about it. Anyway, I got a few of the photos yesterday. I'm totally amazed. They were a lot better than I expected or hoped for.

there's a bigger version on my Flickr. anyway, its thrilling to see my jewlry being worn :D

CREDITS:
ClockworkZero (steampunk jewelry): www.clockworkzero.etsy.com
Tasha (stylist) pretty.deadly.stylz@gmail.com and http://www.modelmayhem.com/708099

Bella (blonde model) http://www.modelmayhem.com/208464

Elyse (purple-haired model) http://www.modelmayhem.com/698146

Jenni (make-up artist) http://www.modelmayhem.com/193703

Starkers (wardrobe) http://www.modelmayhem.com/402135

And Danielle King (photographer): http://www.modelmayhem.com/593390 and www.danielleking.ca