"Wibbly wobbly time-y wimey" pocket watch

People assume that time is a strict progression

of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear,

non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of 

wibbly wobbly... 

time-y wimey... 

stuff. 

 The Doctor in "Blink"

I've posted this quote before, when I ranted about time (or the lack thereof) two and a half years ago.

A little over a year after that post I purchased an empty pocket watch on clearance.  I didn't know what I wanted to do with it, but I knew I wanted to do something.  At some point after that, I acquired a bunch of old, broken watches my mother had lying around.  I painstakingly pried apart everything I could and stored it in a little container.

When I decided to do the Gardens and Gears Steampunk show at the Domes (which is this Sunday - mark your calendars!), I determined that now would be a perfect time to use the pocket watch with the watch parts I had pried apart.

It was the perfect plan but with imperfect organization, as I could not find the parts!  Yeah, yeah, I know... my studio has been organized and reorganized so many times (the last post about it is here, and from there are links to the other posts), so how could I have lost something?  It was a small container, and it could have been "filed" in any number of places.  As soon as I made up my mind to use other pieces I found my watch parts in my "stuff to use in polymer clay" basket drawer.  Tomorrow I'll show you what I did with some of the pieces.

But today is for the pocket watch.  Remember that mixed media section of Michaels I mentioned when I showed you the brightly colored gear and key earrings and necklace and the "magnifying glass" earrings?  They also had clock faces and spinners, so I decided to use a few of those along with one of the gears I enameled yesterday:

As you can see, the pocket watch opens up, and this is the approximate placing of the components.

I put some UV resin (Lisa Pavelka Magic-Glos) in the bottom of the glass (in the regular part of the watch, not the part that opens up) and pressed the gear in.  I put that under the UV light to cure, then I added some more resin and the spinners:

Now you know my secret - I didn't enamel the back side of the gear.  :)

I let that cure for a while, then added more resin and the clock face.  I brushed some resin over the top of the clock face in the hopes that it would stay put.  I couldn't cover it all the way with resin because I needed the space for the winding crown, which is still useable to open the cover of the watch.

After that cured, Steve filed the inside rim so the back would fit better, and he glued the winding crown in.

Here is the final watch opened up:

And here it is closed and on a chain:

Steve dubbed it the "Wibbly wobbly time-y wimey" pocket watch.  Too bad the back of the watch isn't plain, or I'd have that Doctor Who quote engraved on it.

Busy busy busy!

Has it really been almost two months since my last post?  You need to poke me every once in a while and say, "Hey!  Post something!"  Truth to tell, I've been poking myself quite a bit (about posting - get your minds out of the gutter, if you please), but as you know from my Time post, time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.  (Heh - I blinked, and it's Thursday.  You'll have to read the Time post to know what I'm talking about.)

Let's see... what happened since my last post on 9/24/2012 (not necessarily in chronological order):

I co-hosted a baby shower for my cousin Dawn.  I made the invitations a month before, of course, but I had decorations to make.  Here's a mobile I made that hung in the dining room:

I was a vendor at the Milwaukee Bead Show (hosted by Knot Just Beads) with my darling Steve there to help me:

Steve and I went away for a night for our 4th anniversary to Madison.  I made a contact with a bead store that will hopefully carry my designs, and we did a lot of antiquing.  We stayed at a wonderful Bed & Breakfast (Sweet Autumn Inn in Lake Mills, WI) and saw "Hello Dolly" at the Fireside Theatre in Fort Atkinson.  I'm planning on doing a "Bead Organization Porn" blog about a bunch of the different things I saw while antiquing.    We also went to Ella's Deli in Madison which was amazing.  It has to be seen to be believed.  There's stuff moving all over the place inside - I really cannot describe it.  To give you a hint about what it's like, here's Steve and me on the full size carousel outside the restaurant:

The following Saturday I taught a class at Knot Just Beads (Shadowed Diamonds), and it was my mother's birthday.  We had dinner with them on Sunday.  The following week I led a class at Vision Forward for blind and visually impaired ladies (for community service for the Loose Bead Society), and the cold that was brewing hit me (and Steve) hard.  I barely moved off of the couch for over a week.

After that was Loominosity - a collaborative sale that the Loose Bead Society holds with the Wisconsin Handweavers.  I helped with checking pieces in from a number of vendors and with cashiering for a few hours on a few days.  It was a lot of fun!

The NEXT week was Jewelry at the Domes (at the Mitchell Park Domes in Milwaukee).  That was two days of selling and visiting with my friends.  It was a lot of fun but very tiring!  Here's Tammy Rae Wolter who was my neighbor at the show with her gorgeous display:

And somewhere in the middle of all that:

I signed up to have a table at the Madison Art Glass and Bead Show in March, and I'll be participating in the Make 'n Take event.  I'm also hopeful I'll teach a class, but I need to get that proposal sent in soon!

And finally, I also found out that I'm teaching my "Tubed Key, or Not Tubed Key" class at the Bead&Button Show next year!

That covers the highlights.  Tomorrow I'll fill you in on what's going on in the next month.  I need a nap!

Time

Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin'

Into the future

Steve Miller Band, "Fly Like an Eagle"

A man with one watch knows what time it is.

A man with two is never sure.

Unknown

Time flies like an arrow.

Fruit flies like a banana.

Groucho Marx

People assume that time is a strict progression

of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear,

non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of 

wibbly wobbly... 

time-y wimey... 

stuff. 

 The Doctor in "Blink"

One guess what this blog post is about.  Yup, time.  My last post was at the beginning of May, and I swore that my next post would be soon after.  Yeah, that didn't happen.  This is not new to my regular readers.  The post previous to my Car Decor post was I'm so far behind! in which I bemoaned that I haven't been posting.

How does this happen?  I'm not sure, but it's something I contemplate every week as I blink and it becomes Thursday.  Hey, guess what?  It's Thursday.  And what have I done with my time since my last post?

• I attended "Food for Life" classes with my friend Michele.  I now eat edamame, brown rice, and more salads.  We also try to eat ground turkey more often and have the occasional non-meat meal.
• I worked on cleaning my studio (which lasted all of 2 days) and entering inventory into a jewelry designer database program during a week where I had NOTHING SCHEDULED ALL WEEK.  Yes, that's bold, all in caps, and underlined.  I was going to italicize it, too, but I thought that was a bit much.  No LBS board meetings or programs, no doctor's appointments for Mom or for me, nothing.  It was really nice, and I got a lot done.
• I started going to a 5 session yoga class.  I cried during the first two but not during the third.  Yay!  I got the spins during the first class which freaked me out, and I was too sore during the second and got frustrated.  During the third (which was yesterday), I kept half my mind on yoga and the other half on projects I want to work on.  That helped.
• I was all over the Bead&Button Show June 8-12.  I worked the LBS booth one night, I helped my friend Maggie teach three beading classes (not to mention all the pre-work beforehand so I felt comfortable with what we were teaching!), and I worked the Show floor for my friend Bronwen Heilman all day on Saturday.  Not to mention shopping, schmoozing, and reconnecting with people I met last year.  Oh - while I was working Bronwen's booth I also reconnected with the Maid of Honor from my first wedding!  Anita stopped by, and I squealed and hugged the stuffing out of her.
• I did a little bit of scrapbooking.  I'm only a year and a half behind.  Eek!  I know lots of people are much farther behind, but I've been trying to keep up with current stuff and get back to older things.  I need to get moving!
• Finally... I taught my first beading class at a local bead store.  The bracelet is called "Shadowed Diamonds" and is made with adorable and substantial peanut beads. 
  
  Here's a picture of it in one of the color schemes:

• I also made funky instructions to go with the bracelet to try to stand out from what other designers do.  Ooh.  I just called myself a designer.  I guess I am!

Oh - one other thing that has been taking up a lot of my time... I've been exercising.  Like I've said, doctors keep telling me I need to exercise to help the Fibromyalgia, and my last Rheumatologist suggested the Wii Fit.  We bought it, and I've been using it every day (except once when I was sick and during the Bead&Button Show).  The best thing about this Wii Fit is that Steve has been exercising, too, and we've both become more active in general.  I've lost a little weight, but I haven't noticed too much in the soreness department.  I think I'm sleeping a little better most nights, but I still have days when I'm exhausted and can't seem to do anything but nap.

But, according to Mom, my mind is always swirling with ideas.  I got up a few nights ago because I just had to do a proof of concept.  Can one do french knots with beads?  Well, there's a reason that most links when you Google "Beaded french knots" recommend replacing french knots with beads.  French knots are hard in general until you get the hang of them, but adding beads just does not work well.  I had to try!  Then there was a cat up on my desk purring and wanting attention, so I did not get back to bed right away.

One other thing I did was to slap a train magnet on the back of Steve's car during a day when he was carpooling with a coworker:

While I think it's cute, Steve was not thrilled (it's too large for his tastes), so I'm going to make a smaller one and put it off to the side, which is what he said he would have agreed to if I'd asked him before doing it.  I said, "It's removable."  He said, "Just because it's removable that doesn't mean I can remove it."  Wise husband is wise, but I will compromise.

Once I have the time.

In the immortal words of Doctor Who:  "Don't blink."  If I do, another week will have passed.