WATCH TIN THEATERS ... Creating boxes that are little worlds unto themselves is my favorite art form. These new costume jewelry pieces are a way of doing "boxes" on a smaller scale and with jewelry media, I like the dimensionality and stage like effect of these little collages. In these pieces I am able to use the interesting little pieces of glass and brass that I have collected and put them into a form that implies that there is a story attached . These are being presented in pendant form and may be hung on a chain or custom beaded necklace/leash or may be suspended from a bar pin much the same way our grandmothers wore their small pocket watches. Details of construction will accompany each piece.


LADY GODIVA'S MIDNIGHT RIDE This one was great fun, the lady godiva stamping was enameled with Pebeo150 and then encrusted with little flowers, leaves and sapphire flatbacks ... a dappled blue horse. The old watch case has an art nouveau floral design collaged to the inside for a landscape background. It is a Dover copyright free design that has been changed in color and scale and printed with water proof and light resistant inks on my Epson stylus C80 (a printer I highly recommend to collage artists) A vintage brass castle with Color Magic accents and a mother of pearl moon and CAB stars complete the fantasy background.


SPHINX GUARDIAN This piece features a wonderful brass sphinx stamping behind which there is a collaged bit of an image of an old stele. There is a brass winged red glass orb at the top inside, which is difficult to see and and a brass palm tree of which one can see a bit. It is a feature of these pendants that one has to peer inside to see everything, a straight on scan only captures part of the story. The watch case is further embellished with vintage glass cabs and a tiny scarab.


SUNNING MERMAIDS In this one I have tied the theme together between the back and front of the case, two realities perhaps. There is a snip of an ocean beach pic collaged beneath the golden sun and sun drops. The two mermaids are "catching some rays". The watch case is further embellished with SWA blue opal chain. Those cases lacking a bail as an attach point have a hole in which a headpin may be positioned once the stem is removed. This then allows for a lovely bead to used at the top.


TAJ MAHAL DREAM This watch tin displays a wonderful old intaglio cab of the Taj Mahal. Unfoiled glass pieces are used to continue the design of the cab over the entire back. A vintage double leaf and aqua rhinestones and drop embellish the front. Those watch cases that still have their bails are treated to glass drops or crystals glued into the stem hole.


VENUS MORNING STAR This is another piece in which the background is a collaged art nouveau design used as landscape, in the case a dawn sky. Inside there is a glass intaglio of a temple ruin and a mountain, behind which the morning star Venus can be seen low in the sky. At the top is a resin cab of the Roman goddess Venus in her chariot pulled by doves, the bezel and and the rim of the case are ebellished with tiny vitrail RS chain, some lovely vintage glass flower forms and brass leaves embellish the bottom. This is one of those cases that had a hinged area that had to be covered at the bottom and another mechanism at the top also needed to be hidden. The watch cases have a smooth rim on the backside and these problem areas on the front side.


BEE QUEEN This one features an old irridescent glass cameo head surrounded by topaz flatbacks to suggest the pattern of honeycomb. A large bee from vintage dies that has been set with SWA stones is prominently displayed at the bottom while a little brass crown with blue opal stones decorate the area over her head. The rim is embellished with 14pp crystal chain. Amazingly the large crystal is quite firmly seated in the stem hole!!


RING AROUND THE ROSES This case displayes a wonderful deco intaglio of 3 girls dancing. There is a large chip at the base of this piece which is hidden by a bar of rhinestones, I love giving a little theater to a piece of "wounded" glass!! There is a nouveau design background which is mostly hidden by the old blue leaves and cabs and the vibrant metal roses. The rim of this watch was very irregular which was accomodated by using various size peridot flatbacks . The blue glass flower at the stem position has a peridot crystal center that is hidden from view here.


AQUA FAERIE QUEEN This watch tin uses another of my favorite image sources, old readers from the turn of the century to the early 30s that are literally falling apart. Using the original illustration gives these images a new life and complies with copyright laws (as opposed to using a copy of the original, if I am mistaken here I welcome enlightenment!!) The snip of a b&w fairie is collaged under an aqua cab and surrounded by 8 smaller cabs, I was aiming for a kind of aura effect here. The case is richly embellished with crystal and ruby silver plated chain in different orientations, and a bit of recycled glitz for a crown. The stem bead is vintage resin embossed with an arbor vitae twig between two aqua opal glass flowers/bead caps.


HOUSE DOG BLUES This little theater is quite simple, the background was painted an intense royal blue with color magic stains and the little antiqued dog face, with his eyes and nose painted black is presented portrait style and framed wtih sapphire AB chain. And where is the story? Well I think of him as a little house bound dog thinking about the image on the back of the watch case, where there are a couple hounds setting off on an adventure with a hunter. Is he happy to be warm by the fire or would he rather be chasing rabbits ..... hmmmmm??


To purchase by money order or Pay Pal contact DeAnna at circesweb@net1plus.com