At least to a decent price. What you find online at places like Etsy and eBay are often nothing but 2 or 3 watches and the price tag is rarely worth the trouble. And when the price is decent, the shipping will cost a fortune and take forever instead, something that is very common at least at Etsy.

On eBay there are way too many sellers who restrict their sales of old mechanical watches for the purpose of watch repairs only, and I know that makes sense too since they are dedicated to keep old watches alive.
The perfect buy would be a big box of mixed watches, both wrist watches and pocket watches. All mechanical. The problem with newer watches is of course that under the hood there’s nothing but a battery, a few metal pieces and then the rest is plastic. Whenever I bump into one of those they go straight in the trash. Can’t use those for anything so I rarely open them at all.

At least if you ask me, the digital era stinks sometimes. I love my computer and I use my cell phone a lot…the Wii is fun now and then, but when it comes to watches and clocks I want them without digital components. And I can’t for the life of me imagine that there’s a lack of old non-functional mechanical watches either. I’m sure a lot of people have plenty of them in a box in the attic without even being aware of it. Or they already threw them out, which is the most common scenario.

Pocket watches is a completely different thing though. If you’ve got pocket watches in a box in the attic you usually know about it. They might not work or the keys are long gone, but since you don’t know anything about them you won’t trow them away either. They might be valuable. And they just might, that’s true. There are ways to find out, in some cases it’s easy if the pocket watches are of the more common kind. It all depends on where you are.
Then of course there are pocket watches without the financial value, but with a sentimental value that makes them collect dust. Sentimental value is difficult to put a number on and I’ve saved pocket watches myself for the same reason until I got sick and tired of them taking up space in my jewellery box and pack them whenever I moved.

For a while I had suppliers whom I bought most of my old watches from, but since this is about old things that aren’t manufactured any more, it always comes to an end. Or their prices are no longer acceptable with the shrinking lots of watches they sell. Unfortunately, the demand for these mechanical pieces are big enough to allow bigger price tags and at some point you have to put up a limit to how much you are willing to pay. If I charge too much for the items I make, I won’t be able to sell them at all, which means that in the long run I will lose money. And even though I’m passionate about this kind of design I still need to make some sort of profit. Otherwise I might as well keep everything I put together.

That said, I should probably put up some of my current designs on eBay even though I told myself a while back that I wouldn’t do that again. I had a lot of problems with flaky customers on there in the end, so I decided to stay away.
But…I’ve got a good reputation on eBay and never really had any big problems selling, so….we’ll see. In any case, I need more watches. Period.

A couple of weeks ago (or so) I was contacted by the stylist at Daffodil Wave Photography with a request if they could use some of my jewellery for a photo shoot in the beginning of August. I liked the style of their photography…a bit retro and very in tune with the style of the designs I do…so I agreed to supply them with a ring and a bracelet.
Unfortunately, the bracelet was never used due to lack of outfits to match it with, but the ring is featured in a lot of shots. The above is only a few of them.

For some silly reason my designs always looks different to me when I see them on other people. And most of the time I never do since I sell and send it off, and that’s it. So this was an eye-opener and a good one to that

There are a lot more photo’s from this shoot at Daffodil Wave Photography if you want to take a peek (and I think you should), and hopefully it’s not the last time I supply them with accessories

So for this to make any sense at all to others but myself, I took a whole bucket of photo’s and selected 4 of them to put up in an album here. Can never have too many photo’s Especially not when you’re selling something.
The base for this ring is a filigree ring in a brass colored metal. The piece of metal that I bent on top of the ring is an old watch face that was painted white once upon a time before it got scratched and destroyed. Under that layer of white paint was a nice piece of brass, so I decided to get rid of the paint all together and just leave the digits visible.

What you see in the first picture in this post is only a part of the whole ring, but there’s more below. A tiny white stone is also a part of this, even though it’s not easy to see from that angle. And then there are some details in the middle that once used to be inside the same watch the watch face comes from.

The ring itself is adjustable This ring is available for sale and listed under Currently Available
More photo’s below.

I was in the middle of the other pair of earrings when I found these.  At first I put them aside just in case I would need them for the pair I was working on, but on Thursday last week I knew that I could use them for something else.

And the result is in the photo in this post. They are rather discreet and not at all big and chunky. I would use them myself if my piercings worked the way they should, but one is almost entirely gone (that’s how often I use earrings) and I’m also highly sensitive to any metal in my ears that’s not either 18 carat gold or very pure silver. So most of the time I simply skip the earrings.
These will be up for sale in a bit. I need to do something about the store here at Steampunk Box….like actually install one…and then they will be available for sale.

The photo is not the best I’ve ever taken, but the size of these pieces, the mixed light in here and a camera that absolutely hates me (haha) was not a good combination. I will try again a bit later before I put them up for sale.

Even though they are a pair they are very different. The customer wanted a Yin and Yang style pair that represented each others opposite, and during the process of the design itself of the first earring, I decided to make one of them slim and streamlined, while the other would be a bit more chunky and intricate. I don’t know if anyone else can see this, but in my own world the streamlined earring is more “female” with it’s curves and simplicity. It also has a calming effect and a neutering feel to it that could be associated with the caring of a woman.

The other earring is more advanced, more technical and it also have some moving parts. That’s the “male” opposite, the more action filled half. It is also bigger and less curved than it’s “female” buddy.

The customer is happy, which means that I’m happy too The only worry I’ve got is a gravity issue with the longer earring since I can’t try it on and make sure it fits. I’ve got measures of the customers ear and everything, but since the upper part of the earring will rest inside a fold in the ear I really cannot say if that will work until it’s been tested on the ear it belongs to. So I’ve done what I always do and left the purchase open until everyone is happy and everything fits.

I’ve also had a request from a photographer in Birmingham during these past few days. They are doing a photo shoot and I was asked if I could lend them some of the jewellery that you can find on this site. To begin with they picked necklaces that I sold a long time ago, but came back and chose a ring and a bracelet that is still for sale on the front page. So I’m shipping that off tomorrow

The photographer is called Daffodil Waves and I’m really looking forward to see the final photos. I like the retro style of their photos. I will be able to use the shots where my jewellery is included later on, and that’s what I’m looking forward to the most ) Always fun and inspiring to see the designs on people and in different situations.

And I still intend to make that chess set. I’m keeping an eye open for parts for it while I’m juggling different styles and designs since it’s a rather big commitment to make. Takes a bit of planning, even though I never make any of my designs on a piece of paper first.
But there will be more about the chess set in here as soon as I’ve reached a point where it seems doable

Personally I don’t play chess, mainly because it takes a logic that my artistic mind cannot gather. But a chess set can be like many other board games. It can be decorative, no matter if you play or not. And that’s how far my chess experience goes.
I’ve never made a chess set, even though I’ve wanted to build one for quite a few years now. So lets hope that time won’t eat this opportunity and drown me in work as well :p Work is never convenient when you start a project like this, but it has to get priority if it happens.

However, I can’t sit around and hope that the phone won’t ring off the wall with someone in the other end panicking about an e-commerce or similar. This can be put aside if necessary.

So, what I’ve got so far is what you see in the image above – 32 square leather pieces in black and 4 big bolts. There are only 2 bolts in the image but I’ve got 4, one for each corner of the chess board. Next week I will try to hunt down some white or red leather (whatever I’ll get my hands on first is what it will be) and  some small screws.  The thought is to make the board in a way so it looks as if the leather is an inlay in the board. Unless I come up with a way that makes it look better and are more solid of course. Anything can happen along the way.
The chess pieces themselves I haven’t given much though just yet. I want to have the board done first.

Those leather pieces are 20×20 millimetre, which is just under an inch in diameter, which means that the board itself will be of the smaller kind. I could make it a lot bigger, but I enjoy working with small details. And there will be a lot of those in the chess pieces. The idea is to make this more Victorian than actual Steampunk, but we’ll see. Depends a lot on the chess pieces and what I’ll do with those.

I will keep posting about this in here as it comes along. If it turns out nicely I might put it up for sale in the end. We’ll see

Since I’m planning on going back to designing more jewelery than what I’ve done during the past 6 months or so, I need more material. And that’s the biggest reason for the sales I will put up in a near future. Because there’s more on the way.
In spite of what you might think, buying old watches isn’t cheap. A lot of designers are fighting for the nice pieces and the price tags will increase as a natural part of a high demand.
However, I don’t buy my bits and pieces on places like Etsy or eBay unless I can’t find it anywhere else. But at the moment I need to stock up, so I won’t be picky.

So buy these and there will be new designs coming up for sale during the summer.
Easy as that

And if you feel really generous and are looking for a great gift to someone who you know appreciate these kind of things, you should take a look at the Steampunk Briefcase at the index page. It can be used as a regular handbag as well with plenty of room for make-up and other necessary things we girls need to carry around

Anyway…the barrette above is £15 and I ship worldwide. Payment via PayPal and you will need to get in touch with me first since the store is not up and running here yet. Just use this contact form and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Also, most of the items in the categories here are already sold. The only reason I’m keeping the images in the galleries is for commission purpose. Although I never make two items identical, mainly because it’s not possible when you’re working with recycled material, a bit of inspiration is never wrong.

And I really need to get my hands on some old watches again Preferably of the older kind and of pocket size if possible

In any case, this change in here is not just for visual reasons. I wanted something that will be easier to organize once I’ve got that store in place.

Tonight I’ve updated both the blog itself and the store here, which means that now absolutely nothing works :p The store is temporarily disabled until I configured it and activated everything. But after that any orders should be possible to make in the same way as you order anything else online. I still think it’s overkill to set up a complete e-commerce for this since what I’ve got for sale is so limited.

Any shipping rates that are visible at this time are not valid. They are only in your imagination and needs to be corrected. Which is what I will do during the upcoming weekend. I will post here again as soon as everything is set up and ready to go

My bits, cogs, screws and springs are asleep in their plastic boxes for now. I haven’t made anything new for months, but I’m hoping I will get a chance to bring it all back into daylight again soon
Until then, when at you see at the front page is what is available for sale.

But it didn’t look like this only a couple of weeks ago of course. I doubt that any brand will ever sell their product Steampunked and ready :p

So I decided to make it match my cellphone. The color is the same (haven’t used the copper foil since I realized that it blocked the signal from and to the cellphone), the 4 buttons at the bottom is the same as those I used on the keypad on the cellphone and I’ve used watch faces for the multifunction button in the middle, just as I did on the cellphone as well.
The on/off button is a winder for a wristwatch and the decoration on the cradle is a mix of gears and what holds the springs in pocket watches.
Under the screen there’s a piece of a thin spring attached.

It would have been easy to go wild with the cradle since there’s a lot of space to cover…at least compared to the iPaq itself. But sometimes less is more, as they say.

And I think this is ready. I had to cover the touch screen while I did this since it’s very sensitive and not a place where you want to end up finding paint or glue when you’re done. That screen is rather scratched as it is, but I didn’t make it worse. Besides, since the material in that screen is different from the display on the cellphone, I can’t polish it and get rid of scratches in the same way. So those I’m stuck with, sadly to say.
But I’ll use it for as long as it works

Oh and if you want to see what it looks like in original, there’s a picture here. Surprisingly enough, HP are still selling these.