Cuckoo clocks go Steampunk....

is the very first challenge at SanDee and amelie's Steampunk Challenge Blog. Well, being a fan of steampunk I thought I would have a go at this one.



My initial idea was prompted by a recycling theme and I was considering a toilet roll inner, which in turn made me think of something along the lines of an organ pipe (sometimes when I share my thought processes with you I do wonder what is going on in my head, it sounds so daft when you put it down in black and white).

So I extended the TR and made a conical 'roof' with some cereal box card. Added old book pages to strengthen it all and then painted.

I made the bird next from some metal covered card. Did some tooling marks and coloured with alcohol inks (can't seem to put them away now I've got them out). I was very pleased with it until I put the whole thing together - something about it doesn't quite 'gel' with the rest of the project (too flat and shiny?) but I don't have any better ideas so it had to stay.

I had kept a lot of 'clearly for art' waste from another project and now proceeded to cut it into little tiles. I knew there was a reason I had hung on to it!! I then heated each one individually to get a kink (not sure why they had to have a kink but turned out OK) and then stuck them one by one onto the conical roof.

That took quite a while......

While waiting for  that to dry I started treating the main 'cone' with distress EP applied pretty much all over and then added paints/stains/alcohol inks/inka gold and other metallic rub ons to grunge it up further. I should probably have done more paper or paint layers as the edges of the book pages were showing as lines but I was far too impatient - in the end I quite liked the effect, bit like flaky metal so I was glad I hadn't bothered to go for perfection (!)

I finished off with a clock face set in a cog and then various cogs and bits n bobs including the chains and a hanging wire. All in all I like this one and it's already got a nice space on my wall.

It's nearly the closing date for this month's challenge but why not make a note to join in next month?

Challenges: Sandee and amelie's Steampunk Challenge
                    Crafty Emblies Challenge Blog (Anything Goes)