A friend pointed me in the direction of a contest being held by Happy Mango Beads, with a “Trash to Treasure” theme.
I spent about 5? or 6? hours working on my entry, and I am delighted to announce that my entry was one of the alternate winners! Which means: FREE BEAD MONEYS. Also: fame and notoriety.
Maybe not.
Anyway, here it is, the Machinist’s Collar:
"When I aimed my flashlight toward the back of the machine shop, an unexpected blue glint caught my eye. I was not expecting to find this: a collar made from stainless steel wire, woven into a framework for broken watch bands, rusted washers, and other metal objects I could not identify, accented with glass beads. Was this completed by a bored machinist, waiting for a necessary part to arrive? The result of finally emptying the jar labeled “Shiny! or might be useful some day”? Or a symbol of office, abandoned when the shop closed? Perhaps the number of washers hung from the front indicated levels of seniority. I may never know; I visited only days before the wrecking ball arrived."
I raided my collection of random metal objects for this. I knew they’d come in handy someday! VINDICATION!!
The collar turned out to be taller than I originally planned, and for a while I felt pretty bummed out that it was not matching my original concept. It was going to be terrible! And then it started to come together, and I am more pleased with the result than I was with my original concept.
Also: check out the photos of all the entries on Facebook – there are a lot of really gorgeous entries. I think this necklace is my favorite.
On to something less wearable:
Back in August, Artisan’s Asylum had the opportunity to participate in a hackerspace competition. We had 3 weeks to complete a project. Which would be videotaped. The process and the final result. For the purpose of being shown on VIMBY.
The first hour of the show is up, which introduces the competition and very briefly introduces the 5 groups participating. We will get our very own hour in an upcoming week.
Much like the project itself, this both terrifies and excites me.
