Key to Time Series

This is the sketch which the series is based on.  I knew it had to have clock or watch parts and extra rivets for the hell of it.  

 I've shown a few pictures of this series and promised to do an entry on them, so here it is.  This is my key to time series.  I suppose I could call it how time flies as well, as most of them ended up with wings, either stand alone ones or part of some critter.  Around Christmas time I had a bunch of ideas that I sketched and I've been working through them.  I actually made these keys in January, and I hope they sell well, because I have ideas for more and I had a blast making them!

I picked out the keys to decorate, 8 in all.  I marked where I wanted holes, and Jerry drilled them for me.  Thanks Sweetie!  At this point, I had no definite plans yet.

I've got bunches of keys in my vast horde of stuff now, including old but mundane ones.  Anyone can make kewl jewelry using a skeleton or clock key, but what about those more common fellas?

So that was my goal, make standard ( even though old) keys exiting.

One advantage a standard key has over a skeleton key is they are flat, and you can drill holes in them for rivets.  Thinking about that, I decided that's what I wanted to do , drill several holes in a key and then just fill them and see what happens.  Any holes left over I could just add rivets or mini-screws as decoration. 

Now we are cooking! I've started to lay them out, and planning how I want them to look.  This is my favorite part!

 Usually when I work with vintage keys I make sure you can see most of it, but in this case I wasn't afraid to cover them up.  It's was quite liberating artistically  not to worry about it.  I used the key as the base, not the focus, but I did want people to still know that a key was involved. 

I wanted time involved (cause when do I not? ) so I started with watch faces, and then layered animals, wings, clock parts etc, until I liked each piece.

Group shot, all of the necklaces are finished in this pic...

Then I assembled each necklace, using rivets, mini-screws, and wire wrapping.  I added a drop to each, and chain for necklaces.  I think these would make excellent broaches as well with some modification.  Since I've already shown pics here on the blog and on my Facebook of many of these, I'll just show the owl one close up. 

this one has 3 clock gears layered in, the owl holding a pearl, and draped chain.  notice the 3 rivets for decoration running up the key shank.