Melissa Tomerlin
The Gold Bug
Denver, CO
The stampings I get in raw brass form are sawed, hammered, riveted, plated, oxidized, and formed into pieces inspired by the Victorian, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and current Eras depending on the minute details of the watch.
Digging around in a booth at a Flea Market, I discovered an old box with a treasure trove of stampingsā many over 100 years old. Intrigued by them I researched and found that most of the companies that had made them were still in business and still had most of the original molds. Around the same time, someone sent me a picture of a āSteampunkā computer that led to hours of looking at different things people made with old clocks and watches.
Flipping through the Xerox copies of the stampings that made up the catalogs and remembering a box of old watches I had seen at one of my second-hand haunts I knew I wanted to create a collection of jewelry featuring the artistic heritage of jewelry making in the US while featuring the hidden beauty of the insides of old watches.
The stampings I get in raw brass form are sawed, hammered, riveted, plated, oxidized, and formed into pieces inspired by the Victorian, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and current Eras depending on the minute details of the watch.
