One thousandth post by sheepdoll

Amazing I only started reading these forums in July. Thought it would take forever to get 200 posts. 2000 word posts are probably more my style.

So here is 1000 words in a picture.
This is from years of taking enamel jewelry classes on the weekend. I was actually working to making watch dials. I also have a fascination with automata. The box on the upper left contains a mechanical bird inside.

I showed the medalion to the maker in Germany and they custom made the movement. Some time I need to finish the gold hing for the bezel I painted. Gold was a lot less in the late 1990s.

I also got a vintage one from one of the local collectors. This is from the 1950s.


I have one more custom movement to case some time.

Of course one can not be into enameled watches and not want to collect such. I do not get these out often. The little one in the center came from Prague.

Yea sheepdoll!

Thanks for the photographic show and tell.

Sweet! I wish I thought of something cool for my 1000th post too.

You know the rules- a Speedmaster for everyone who has over 10k….😗

I'm mildly embarrassed by my post count and also surprised how fast it added up. This place is a bit different in that we talk about all kinds of random stuff plus the whole wide world of watches. Other forums I've been on are much more narrowly focused and dare I say stay more on topic 😁. But it's more fun here. Now that Spring and Summer are on the way maybe I'll get out more and step away from the keyboard...

1000 posts? That's (a) grand! 🙄

Please stick around for another few thousand!

Like good landscape design, life is more interesting with meandering paths. I think the mods know that well.

Congrats on 1,000! Glad you're here, keep on keepin' on!

For your entertainment here's an organ performance that I'm fond of, with an interesting story behind it (I'll let you sleuth that out). My mum was an accomplished (non-professional) organist so I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for anything organ-related.

The first video was produced by Royal Albert Hall and has better sound and video quality, but the organ loft (and organist) is completely lost from view. The second video was made by the organist.

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I think for post 10K you'll have to make and share some custom enameled dials!

That sounds like a really fun process to get into. I'm going to have to add it to my list of hobbies to get into when I retire.

It was tradition to paint classical subjects. Those are intended to be the three graces. The theme also appears on the left. I guess some would consider this a form of Hecate.



Most of them were inspired by stuff I saw at Le Locle and La Chaux de fonds. Others from the reproduced art of Pompeii.

The story of Cinderella is on the music box (left side) Here are some of the other sides of the music box.


It is hard to photograph these even with the diffuser. there is a lot of reflections and the I phone is not the best at taking close up shots. I have other cameras and lenses. That is also an art unto itself.

It is really hard for the metals not to warp. Gives appreciation for the stuff seen in the museums. I suspect there was a lot of division of labor. The materials are quite expensive as they have to withstand the high temperatures (1400F which is like 700C) This is like Volcano heat. The glass becomes liquid.

There are only a few oxides what can withstand this. (these are also used in the 17th century painting.) The proper technique is to layer them and use the light reflections. Most of this material has been banned. After the dot com bubble of the 1990s, the metal prices spiked. I left the world of printing when Apple shut down the imaging division.

I also got a job programming player pianos (digital electronic.) So all this stuff got set aside. Without the weekend access to the kilns there was not much point continuing. I have over 700 specialized organ rolls yet to scan to MIDI. I built one band organ and have the parts for two others in storage. There are also the mechanical dolls.

I also got a CNC machine and CAD software to run it. That is yet another time sink. I have shared much of the results of using the transfer systems in the making of the dials. Basically I ran out of room for all of this stuff.

What I really need is a warehouse. Or better yet something like a small alpine village to set everything up in.

The other difficulty is days are simply not long enough. That it is easy to get distracted.

Congratulations!

That is a cool hobby. Looks like it entails a great deal of patience. I’m trying to get more time in on magic tricks and the guitar but free time is just sparse at the time being. Things will settle down I am always amazed when people do cool art things as I can’t draw a stick figure that looks good.

You are also becoming much “walrus” like almost eggmanish