Time Medusa

I've been playing with my Medusa idea for a month maybe, mostly in my head.   I finally sat down and seriously worked on it last week, and I love how it turned out.

I talked some about my ideas on Medusa last week in this blog entry .  This blog is more about the mechanics of making it.

I think I've shared my views on gluing before.  Once I wouldn't glue to save my life. I considered it cheap and not sturdy enough to use in my designs.  The last few years that's changed as I want to make designs that the best solution to attach things is, well gluing. I've experimented and I think I've come up with the best gluing methods when gluing is required.  Having said that glue is my last resource.  If I can rivet something, I'll go that route.  Or solder, or wire work, or...

you get the idea.  But some things are just too delicate for other methods, or the look is wrong wrong wrong without the invisible bonding of glue.

I do use glue to reinforce things sometimes.  My navigation rings are a great example of this principle.  I rivet a deep bezel to the ring, and then glue the compass into the bezel.  I tried gluing the compass straight to the ring and It didn't look right nor was I happy with the sturdy factor.  

With my watch movement rings I glue directly to the ring, but the watch has more texture so it glues pretty well without a bezel.  (and the odd shapes of the rings makes the bezels look, well, weird)  

One of the big secrets to gluing things that stay glued is PRESSURE.  These little clip guys are the best, they apply enough pressure for gluing but not enough to mare delicate surfaces. 

I pretty much to glue the bone face in the pendant piece on Medusa.  I did examine using a riveted bezel ( and then gluing to reinforce) but it made her face look wrong on the piece.  I really wanted the hair tentacles to come straight from the head, and that means gluing.

I used glue to attach the vintage pocket watch face as well, but that's also reinforced with prongs.  I also covered the face in resin to help protect the more fragile watch face.  Because of the mix of rivets, prongs and glue, the main piece is multi-layered and I love how it looks together!  

The rest is riveted and wired.