By George, I Think I've Got It!

Dearest Emilly,

I have to say, I think I might have pretty much cracked it.

I have enclosed a few quick daguerrotypes showing the fruits of today's labours. Its been a bit of a one of them, with some things working straight away and others proving to be a little trying, but thanks to the various samples I've made it wasn't anywhere near as tricksy as it could have been.

To the left, the overview: black acrylic felt with an overlay of Wireform that I blasted with some embossing powders to knock it back a bit. As you can see, free machine zig-zagging around the edges with metallic thread just gives it a little something extra that the unedged samples didn't have.


To the right, you can see the details a bit better. There's an old watch face, a cog from that wonderful mechanism we got from the nice Clock Man, a few resistors that the Prof dug up in the Circus' basement and some copper shim butterflies (nicely pinked up with another blast or two from the heat gun).


I must confess, I did resort to glue; I thought it would look a bit messy even for Pixies if I tried to couch everything down.

And I know that resistors are a tad post-modern for steampunk, but then again, that's not entirely what I'm doing...

To the left, you can see the tassle I made to finish it all off. There's three different sorts of variegated silk ribbon in there, with an old clock hand (from the Rummage Man's stall) wired onto it.

My wiring still needs a bit of practice, and getting the two bits to hang together was beginning to tax my patience, but it all came out alright in the end (at least for a first full attempt).

Now all I need to do is sort out the medals and some earrings and the brooch for my blouse (sort of like an alternative tie for Pixies) and do some more embroideries (I have a great idea for some applique work with some of the smaller bits from the teeny-weeny watches; oh yes, and finish the other ones I started) and do some felt-based cog-shaped brooches and... Well, you get the general idea, I'm sure :)

And thank you for the patches - they will cover up the hole in my blue skirt very nicely. Its amazing what damage a soldering iron will do if you leave it in the wrong place.

All my love,

Fuschia