I'm working on the railroad....

Early idea for the train

OK last post I I showed you my train necklace, I just wanted to tell you more about this.  Back in November I got these great vintage french brass stampings of a train engine.  I loved it! It's the perfect steampunk kind of image!

You can see above one of my earlier ideas ... but I kept playing around with it  - or putting it aside but not completely away, because I really wanted to make something with a train theme.

So Last week I ran across the brass train again, and I had fairies out, and it just clicked.  I mean someone has to drive the engine right?   Who better than a fairy, at least when it's my jewelry.

Before I got my hands on the back.... 

And after I added color and brass!

I wanted a watch or clock involved somehow, because trains made America great -- and it took accurate time pieces to do it.   There are a whole range of specialty pocket watches made specifically for train workers.   I have had a few pocket watch faces that were train types but I've already used them in other projects.  The great railroad pocket watches tend to be more valuable and don't get pieced out... and I only recycle responsibly.  (you can read that as if it's pretty or functional- and not a adding machine, cause even the pretty adding machines are butt ugly- then it's not on my chopping block)

All finished

So I fished around and found this cute square face from a old alarm clock.  The back was pretty ugly, so I decided to add patina and then brass to make it look nice from both sides.    I added another clock part in the front, and it might be hard to tell from the picture but I have small watch gears in front of the train wheels.